9-12
Helping Students Get a Head Start on the "Real World": State Strategies for Early High School Graduation
This brief challenges the need for a fourth year of high school, addressing the controversy around “senior year” and its tendency to draw out the high school experience. In proposing the topic of early graduation, the document outlines a number of policy approaches and their successful implementation in various states. Among these programs are scholarship incentives, dual enrollment, virtual classes, and proficiency-based credits.
It's About Time: A Framework for Proficiency-Based Teaching & Learning
This workbook, a product specifically requested by the Oregon Department of Education, addresses the topic of proficiency in an attempt to define it objectively and ensure its consistency in the measurement of student achievement across schools and districts. It articulates the many manifestations of proficiency-based practices in the classroom and addresses the common concerns and questions of those exploring “proficiency.” The workbook makes a case for how schools and districts can and will ultimately benefit from this redesign.
Pathways Case Study: Mountain Home, AR
The Promise of High Quality Career and Technical Education
Submitted by Wanda S. Monthey on
In a recent collaboration, the Georgetown Public Policy Institute, the Georgetown Center on Poverty, The Business Roundtable, and The College Board published an issue brief, titled The Promise of High-Quality Career and Technical Educati
New CCRS Center Brief: Predictors of Postsecondary Success
Submitted by CCRS Center on
This month the College and Career Readiness and Success Center (CCRS Center) released a brief titled Predictors of Postsecondary Success. Prepared in collaboration with Quill Research Associates, LLC, the brief identifies measures of student characteristics (e.g., behaviors, skills) which predict future academic and workplace success.
Are Personalized Learning Environments the Next Wave of K-12 Education Reform?
This paper discusses the 16 Race to the Top grantees in 2012 -- a year in which the U.S. Department of Education highlighted the need for personalized learning environments. Specific attention is paid to the successful design and innovation plans of each grantee state, with a focus of four main activity areas within the context of personalized learning. This paper summarizes opportunities for innovation and potential challenges in constructing effective personalized learning environments, with the ultimate hope of providing key takeaway points for improvements in teaching and learning.
Rewarding Dual Enrollment in Performance-Based Funding Formulas
Dual enrollment and early college high schools have been shown to have a positive association with college completion rates. However, these programs are often among the first to be cut when state funding gets tight. This report outlines how performance-based funding that rewards outcomes such as graduation rates or annual student growth goals is a promising answer to state funding challenges.
Career and Technical Education Teachers: Strengthening Policies and Improving Instruction
Submitted by Catherine Jacques on
High-quality career and technical education (CTE) programs are essential in improving college and career readiness for all students. High-quality CTE is not traditional vocational education or a tracking system. Instead, it provides all students, including those headed for four-year colleges, with rigorous academic instruction integrated with project-based learning and skill development. Policymakers across the country should invest in high-quality CTE to truly improve students’ college and career readiness.
Blended Learning Implementation Guide
This implementation guide from Digital Learning Now and the Foundation for Excellence in Education is the fifth document in a series focused on making the connection between blended learning and the implementation of the Common Core State Standards. The guide aims to support school and district leaders in the transition to a blended learning model by providing specific guidance related to: creating the conditions for success, planning, implementation, and continuous improvement.
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