Outstanding Practices

Using Rigor, Relevance and Relationships to Improve Student Achievement: How Some Schools Do It    
The primary challenge for high schools is preparing students for postsecondary education and careers. High-achieving schools teach all students a rigorous academic core, show students the relationship between high school studies and future success, and provide students with personal support. These schools successfully gain faculty support for school-improvement efforts. This publication illustrates how 26 high schools have met the challenge by integrating academic and career/technical instruction, establishing mentoring and teacher advisement, expecting more of their students, working with local colleges and universities, and cooperating with the business community. These strategies can help other schools achieve similar success.

Opening Doors to the Future: Preparing Low-achieving Middle Grades Students to Succeed in High School
Many students find the journey from the middle grades to high school difficult. They lack the knowledge and skills necessary for doing high school-level work, and they do not have the study skills needed to meet higher standards in ninth grade and beyond. Middle grades schools and high schools increasingly are creating safety nets — special programs to help students make the transition to grade nine. This publication contains 15 examples of transition programs that work in raising achievement and keeping students in school.

Using Technology to Improve Instruction and Raise Achievement
It's not how many computers a school has; it's how teachers use technology in raising students' academic achievement. Many schools have developed innovative ways to engage students in learning through software, the Internet and other modern techniques. This collection of practices that work is designed to inspire teachers to go high-tech in classroom instruction and projects.

1998 Outstanding Practices: Raising Student Achievement by Focusing on the 10 Key Practices
This publication contains 33 examples from 21 states of how high schools are using SREB’s High Schools That Work key practices to raise student achievement. The key practices include raising expectations, improving the quality of vocational studies, making academic studies meaningful to all students, providing guidance and advisement, making it possible for academic and vocational teachers to work and plan together, and providing extra help for student who need it to meet higher standards. The practices are organized by the key practices they reflect. Contact information is provided to make it easy to talk with educators at the schools that have implemented the practices.

For more information, e-mail Gene Bottoms at gene.bottoms@sreb.org.