2. Redesigning High Schools:
Creating and maintaining the career- and interest-based programs and the collaborative culture, structures, and practices necessary to transform teaching and learning and facilitate community engagement
Students have choices among high-quality career academies and similar career - and interest-themed programs
Description:
Schools offer a variety of career academies and similar career- and interest-themed programs, designing them according to rigorous standards so they are challenging and accessible, and phasing them in across the district to reach a critical mass of students.
Rigorous career academies and similar career - and interest-themed programs:
Schools offer a variety of career academies, with the following characteristics:
Features:
Expanding to reach critical mass:
Career academies are available and increasing in scale to serve a growing percentage of students.
Personalized student planning:
Each student, with input from his or her family, develops a personalized plan for selecting a career academy, identifies postsecondary options, and updates this plan on a regular basis.
Personalization of career academies:
For students whose interests span two or more career academies, the school helps them customize their program of study in ways that integrate knowledge and skills from different programs and work-based learning opportunities.
Accelerated learning opportunities:
Each career academy encourages students to participate in advanced learning and service opportunities, and supports them in doing so.
Guidance and advisement:
To support the development and implementation of a personalized plan, all students are involved in a guidance/advisement system that helps them develop positive relationships, ensures that they complete their selected program of study, and prepares them to pursue their stated postsecondary learning and career objectives.
Extra help for struggling students:
Career academies are coordinated with a structured support system to help students catch up and succeed in academically challenging classes, instead of being tracked into low-level courses. Academic supports are integrated with career- and interest-themed content.
School staff form a learning community committed to transforming their practice
Description:
The high school staff team operates as a collaborative learning community, where school leadership establishes and supports a vision for high school redesign.
Features:
Support from the principal and high school administration:
The high school principal and other administrators publicly support and embrace the use of career academies as the core high school redesign strategy.
Ongoing, sustained, high-quality professional development:
All leadership team members, administrative staff, and teachers receive ongoing professional development, based on research on effective strategies. This professional development is directly linked to their daily responsibilities and is included in their personalized professional growth plans. The professional development:
Teachers working together:
Teachers of core academic and elective subjects are expected to collaborate and are supported with common planning time and professional development in order to develop and implement the Ford PAS Learning and Teaching Pillars.
School staff leadership and support:
Teachers and school counselors are designated to provide leadership and support for student participation in career academies; roles for program leadership and staff support are clearly delineated.
Teachers and school leaders form communities of practice:
Teachers and school leaders form communities of practice—groups in which professionals work together to study, learn, and address specific questions and challenges that arise in the process of implementing the school’s redesign strategy.
School leaders have flexible use of resources
Description:
The school creates structures and uses flexible schedules to support personalization, strengthen teacher-student relationships, and improve the learning environment.
Features:
School structure and scheduling:
A school structure is chosen that allows all students and teachers to spend a critical amount of time within small learning environments.
Implement cohort scheduling:
The school leaders institute and protect a cohort scheduling method to increase the amount of time that students spend with teachers and other students within a designated small learning community.
Block scheduling:
The school provides sufficient learning time through the use of extended or flexible instructional time blocks, while also providing professional development to ensure that instructional time is used most effectively.
Resources:
School leaders are given enough authority over the use of financial resources to allocate those resources toward accomplishing the school’s objectives.
Adults and students are accountable for results
Description:
Each school is held accountable for the effectiveness of its teaching and learning.
Features:
Multiple measures:
Accountability measures include a variety of accepted indicators of performance (e.g., attendance, retention, credits, grade point averages, state test scores, graduation rates, college admission/attendance rates) as well as assessments of knowledge and skills (such as problem solving, critical thinking, creativity, and teamwork) that are not typically captured in traditional indicators.
Program evaluations:
Using multiple measures of program effectiveness (attendance, student engagement, school disruptions, class grades, standardized and targeted assessments, retention, graduation, feedback from key stakeholders), school and program leaders regularly assess the career academy implementation, and modify aspects of the program to achieve continual improvement.
Data literacy for school improvement:
Teachers and school leaders have the capacity to use data and research to inform instructional practice and to guide professional learning priorities and needs. School teams use data to monitor and communicate progress to all stakeholders.
School district supports and sets expectations for high school redesign
Description:
The school district actively supports and holds leaders accountable for high school redesign around career academies and similar career- and interest-themed programs.
Features:
Support and accountability from the Board of Education and Superintendent: These leaders publicly support and set clear expectations for the use of career academies as the core high school redesign strategy.
Central administration of high school redesign:
The district centralizes all programs likely to involve high school redesign (magnet, choice, small learning community, career academy, CTE operations) under one leader and department.
District policies for funding, facilities, equipment, and materials:
District and high school administrative support results in adequate funding, facilities, equipment, and learning materials to support career academy-focused high school redesign. This support reflects a serious commitment from both the district and the high school to the success of the high school redesign strategies.
Focused use of funding streams:
Federal and state funding (such as Perkins and Smaller Learning Communities ) are channeled toward supporting career academy high school redesign strategies
Transition from middle to high school:
The district leadership actively encourages middle and high school teams to collaborate (e.g., by sharing student achievement data, aligning curriculum and assessments, and providing orientation sessions and opportunities for students to preview career programs) in order to ease the transition from the middle grades to high school.