Education Level: High School
High School
9th to 12th grade
High school graduation is one of life’s great milestones, propelling adolescents into adulthood. During these years, schools must prepare students for as many options as possible: college, career and life as productive citizens.
Challenge 2020 Goal
Eighty percent of all groups of ninth-graders will graduate from high school ready for college and career training.
Track your state’s progress toward this goal in SREB’s State Progress Reports.
Beginning the Bachelor of Science in Nursing in High School
How Kentucky Created a 120-Credit Hour Nursing Career Pathway
Beginning the Bachelor of Science in Nursing in High School: How Kentucky Created a 120-Credit Hour Nursing Career Pathway describes how SREB spent a year working with a coalition of Kentucky educators and health-care employers to develop a seamless sequence of courses and credentials that help students transition from high school to community and technical college programs, the BSN and employment as nursing assistants, licensed practical nurses (LPNs) and registered nurses (RNs).
Tenets of State Accountability for Increased College and Career Readiness
SREB has identified key tenets of accountability that can guide states toward creating meaningful and valid accountability systems. These key accountability tenets support efforts to increase college and career readiness among the SREB region’s future high school graduates.
Challenge to Lead Goals for Education: Refreshed 2020
Challenge to Lead 2020 Goals for Education: Refreshed 2020 offers six critical goals. They were designed to help SREB state leaders connect measures of student achievement to essential state policies. Each goal includes background information and the steps states need to take to meet each goal in the years ahead.
The ACT and SAT: No Longer Just College Admission Tests
SREB states adopted key education policies that increased the proportion of seniors taking the ACT and SAT while they were in high school from 2008 to 2013. This brief covers state-by-state college testing policies, plus data on test-taking by racial and ethnic group.
FALs Yield High Dividends
Jeanne Glover, math specialist at the Jonesboro Public Schools district in Jonesboro, Arkansas, was trained in the Mathematics Design Collaborative during the 2013-14 school year with SREB math consultant Amanda Merritt. Glover believes the MDC tools fit well with her K-12 mathematics vision for the district.
So Debbie Blankenship, math teacher at Douglas MacArthur Junior High School, joined two other district teachers for initial MDC training in May 2014.
Math Ready
Ready for College
SREB’s Math Ready course for the senior year of high school is designed to prepare students who aren’t yet ready for college math. This flier presents a quick overview of the eight units in the course.
Get It in Writing
Making Adolescent Writing an Immediate Priority in Texas
A call to action for Texas middle grades and high schools to make writing instruction a priority. Writing is an essential tool for learning academic content in any discipline. Get It in Writing summarizes the status of writing instruction and learning, outlines challenges to progress and lists valuable resources, including “Elements of Effective Adolescent Writing Instruction.”
A Critical Mission
Making Adolescent Reading an Immediate Priority in SREB States
Report of the Committee to Improve Reading and Writing in Middle and High Schools
Nationwide, students in the middle grades and high school are failing to develop the reading and writing skills they need in order to meet higher academic standards. This major SREB report on adolescent literacy discusses the urgency of the problem in depth and presents specific solutions for SREB states based on the recommendations of the SREB Committee to Improve Reading and Writing in Middle and High Schools, chaired by Governor Tim Kaine of Virginia, the SREB Board chair. The report includes a message from SREB President Dave Spence and status reports on recent state actions on the issue.
Focus on Compulsory Attendance Policies
About Age or Intervention?
Over the past decade, SREB state policy-makers have focused on actions to reduce dropout rates and increase high school graduation rates. Some policymakers have suggested that raising their state’s compulsory attendance age (often called the dropout age) to require students to stay in school until age 17 or 18 is an important step.
Credentials for All: An Imperative for SREB States
SREB’s Commission on Career and Technical Education offered eight actions states can take to build rigorous, relevant career pathways. Supported by policies and practices described in the report, these actions can help states increase the percentage of young adults earning valuable industry and postsecondary credentials.
West Virginia Teacher Experiences a Paradigm Shift Using Math Strategies
Brittany Dameron, a fifth-year math teacher at Riverside High School in Belle, West Virginia (Kanawha County School District), taught her first formative assessment lesson (FAL) spring semester of 2016. She finds the strategies of the Mathematics Design Collaborative (MDC) make math come alive for her students.
Reaching Higher Ground
SREB States Outpace U.S. Growth in High School Graduation Rates
The 2002 Challenge to Lead Goals for Education called for SREB states to raise the percentages of all groups of students graduating from high school to above the national average, as part of the region’s mission “to lead the nation in educational progress.” Detailed in this SREB Policy on Point report, the gains made by the region as a whole and by individual states since that time have been remarkable. Almost every SREB state increased its high school graduation rate from 1999 to 2009, and more than half outpaced the nation’s gains.
Smart Class-Size Policies for Lean Times
This policy brief summarizes class-size reduction policies across the region, reviews research on the issue, and offers recommendations on how states might make sensible adjustments without jeopardizing student achievement.
Transitioning to the New High School Graduation Rate
For nearly a decade, states have had flexibility in collecting and reporting graduation rate data for state and federal accountability purposes. But in 2008, the U.S. Department of Education issued new guidelines that require all states to report a new rate – the four-year adjusted cohort graduation rate - beginning in the 2011-2012 school year.
Strengthening Attend n’ Drive Laws
To Reduce Truancy and Dropouts
The majority of states nationwide and all 16 SREB states link eligibility for a driver’s license to school attendance (and in some cases to academic performance). This policy brief compares attend ‘n’ drive laws across SREB states, takes a look at their effectiveness, and offers recommendations for states.
The Next Generation of School Accountability
A Blueprint for Raising High School Achievement and Graduation Rates
Report of the Committee to Improve High School Graduation Rates and Achievement
This report recommends strategies that states and public schools can use to improve student achievement and raise graduation rates. The report is based on the recommendations of the SREB Committee to Improve High School Graduation Rates and Achievement, led by Governor Sonny Perdue of Georgia.