About High Schools That Work

Message from Gene Bottoms

SREB Senior Vice President

The Southern Regional Education Board’s High Schools That Work is the nation’s largest and fastest-growing effort to combine challenging academic courses and modern vocational studies to raise the achievement of high school students. The initiative was established in 1987 by the SREB-State Vocational Education Consortium, a partnership of SREB, states, school systems and school sites.

High Schools That Work is based on the belief that most students can master complex academic and technical concepts if schools create an environment that encourages students to make the effort to succeed. Member schools implement 10 Key Practices for changing what is expected of students, what they are taught and how they are taught.

SREB provides member states and sites with staff development, technical assistance, communications and publications, and assessment services. The HSTW Assessment provides data on students’ reading, mathematics and science achievement as well as students’ and teachers’ opinions on high school curriculum and instruction. The annual High Schools That Work Summer Staff Development Conference for some 6,500 educators is a focal point for year-round professional development.

High Schools That Work has grown from 28 pilot sites in 13 states to its current size of more than 1,200 sites in 31 states: Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington and West Virginia.