High School

Gene Bottoms
Senior vice-president
Southern Regional Education Board's "High Schools that Work"
Atlanta, GA
404-875-9211

Mike Cohen
President
Achieve, Inc.
Washington, DC
202-419-1540

Carmon Cunningham
Communications director
Jobs for the Future
Boston, MA
617-728-4446

Jennifer Dounay
Project manager
ECS High School Policy Center
Denver, CO
303-299-3689

Mike Feinberg
Co-founder
KIPP Schools
San Francisco, CA
415-874-7377

David Bloomfield
Associate professor of educational administration and policy
Brooklyn College
Brooklyn, NY
718-951-5608

Michelle Fine
Professor of Social Psychology
Graduate Center of the City University of New York
New York, NY
212-817-8710

Naomi Housman
Director
National High School Alliance
Washington, DC
202-822-8405

Lorna Jimerson
Policy analyst
Rural Schools and Community Trust
Charlotte, VT
802-425-2497

James Kemple
Director of K-12 education
MDRC
New York, NY
212-532-3200

Susan Robinson King
Vice president, Public affairs
Carnegie Corporation
New York, NY
212-371-3200

Michael Klonsky
Director
Small Schools Workshop
Chicago, IL
773-384-1030

Leslie Santee Siskin
Professor
Columbia University Teachers College
New York, NY
212-678-3726

Becky Smerdon
Director
National High School Center
Washington, DC
800-634-0503

Marty Strange
Policy director
Rural Schools and Community Trust
Randolph, VT
802-728-4383

Christopher B. Swanson
Director
Editorial Projects in Education's Research Center
Bethesda, MD
301-280-3103

Tom Van der Ark
Executive director, Education division
Gates Foundation
Seattle, Washington
206-709-3400
(Marie Groark is communications director)

Elliot Weinbaum
Researcher
University of Pennsylvania's Consortium for Policy Research in Education
Philadelphia, PA
215-573-0700

Bob Wise
Director
Alliance for Excellent Education
Washington, DC
202-828-0828

FEC's Campaign Finance Disclosure Data Search

Find out who's giving money to which candidates, read summary reports about the political parties and more at the Federal Election Commission's Campaign Finance Disclosure Data Search Web site.

College- and Career-Ready
This report released by Education Sector examines graduation rates and data can be used to hold high schools accountable for student achievement. Chad Aldeman, Education Sector, Jan. 12, 2010

The Career/Technical Education Statistics

If you are writing a story about career and technical education and need some data, check out the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) website. The Career/Technical Education Statistics section includes information on the secondary/high school, post-secondary/college career education and adult education. You can get information on 10-year educational trends, student enrollment, financial aid, faculty and state data.  5/1/2009

The Condition of Education 2009 is an integrated collection of the indicators and analyses and is produced by the National Center for Education Statistics. 6/2/2009

Teens and Internet Life
Friday, March 20, 2009

Teens and Internet Life

Early College High School Initiative: Lessons from the Lone Star State
Jobs for the Future released this report which analyzes the challenges of blended high school and college programs targeted to low-income, first-generation students in the state of Texas which is considered the national leader in this initiative, with 29 programs. 3/5/2009

The Misplaced Math Student: Lost in Eighth-Grade Algebra
The Brookings Institution analyzes the disadvantages of eighth graders taking Algebra I when they are not prepared. Tom Loveless, senior fellow and director of the Brown Center on Education at Brookings, is the lead author of the report.
by Brookings Institution , 12/12/2008

IF IT CATCHES MY EYE pdf
Teenagers aren't much into following serious news online, but news organizations can -and should - cultivate their interest by learning how to catch their eyes, diminish their angst, go where they are, enlist parents and teachers in the cause, and help teens develop a "news persona," according to a study released by the Media Management Center at Northwestern University.
Media Management Center, Northwestern University - Vivian Vahlberg, Limor Peer, Mary Nesbitt,, 1/18/2008

Why Rural Matters 2007
Why Rural Matters 2007 is the fourth in a series of biennial reports analyzing the importance of rural education in each of the 50 states and calling attention to the urgency with which policymakers in each state should address rural education issues.
The Rural School and Community Trust - Jerry Johnson and Marty Strange, 10/23/2007

The Postsecondary Achievement of Participants in Dual Enrollment: An Analysis of Student Outcomes in Two States
The Community College Research Center has released a report about the positive outcomes of dual enrollment programs for high school students. Researchers tracked high school and college outcomes for dual enrollment participants in New York City and Florida.
Community College Research Center - Melinda Mechur Karp, Juan Carlos Calcagno, Katherine L. Hughes,Dong Wook Jeong & Thomas R. Bailey , 10/17/2007

Are Private High Schools Better Academically Than Public High Schools?
The study released by the Center on Education Policy (CEP) examines 12 years of data that finds students who attended private schools didn't have much of an advantage over their peers who attended public high schools in regard to test scores, career happiness, and civic engagement. Family involvement is key and the study finds that low-income students from urban public high schools generally did as well if they had a good support system.
Center on Education Policy (CEP) - Harold Wenglinsky, 10/10/2007

Restoring Value to the High School Diploma: The Rhetoric and Practice of Higher Standards pdf

'07 Knight survey shows most high school students haven't heard about Constitution Day
Three years after a new federal law took effect requiring schools to educate all students about the Constitution and the First Amendment, a new survey shows that a majority of America's students aren't even aware that Constitution Day exists.
The Knight Foundation - David Yalof and Ken Dautrich, 9/17/2007

GRADUATION MATTERS: How NCLB allows states to set the bar too low for improving high school grad rates
Despite the national focus on reforming America's high schools, most states are setting woefully low goals for improving graduation rates and are not setting goals for ensuring that more low-income, minority, disabled and English language learner students graduate, according to this report from The Education Trust.
The Education Trust - Daria Hall, 8/1/2007

Pathways to Prevention:The Latino Male Droput Crisis
Institutional barriers within schools, such as tracking, along with cultural factors, create significant obstacles in the pathways to success for Latino males, according to this report. Its conclusion is that by dropping out, these young men are greatly affecting their futures, their future families, and their community in ways that someone so young cannot readily understand.
Arizona State University Center for Community Development and Civil Rights, 7/13/2007

Southern Regional Education Board's Fact Book on Higher Education
Billed as one of the nation's most comprehensive collections of comparative data on higher education, the Fact Book has data on long-term trends and developments in higher education in 16 southern states. State-by-state summaries and quick facts are also included.
Southern Regional Education Board, 7/1/2007

The Condition of Education 2007
High school students in the United States are taking more courses in mathematics and science, as well as social studies, the arts, and foreign languages, according to an analysis of high school student coursework that is highlighted in this government report. Statistics on student achievement, school environment and a wide range of other topics related to early childhood education through postsecondary education are also included.
by National Center for Education Statistics, 5/1/2007

Graduation Rate Map: Read District-by-District Reports
A new Web site from the Editorial Projects in Education Research Center and EdWeek.org allows users to find a school district on a map and read a custom report about high school graduation rates in that district. The creators plan to add more features to the site in the next few months.
Editorial Projects in Education Research Center and EdWeek.org, 1/30/2007

Tough Choices or Tough Times
A bi-partisan commission, comprised of former Cabinet secretaries, governors, college presidents and business, civic and labor leaders, is calling for a total shakeup in how America educates its people. Its findings include ending high school at 10th grade, revamping and reducing pension systems, collective bargaining at the state -- instead of local -- level.
by The New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce , 12/15/2006

How Well Are American Students Learning?
The report looks at the "happiness factor" in education, analyzing international data to see whether students' self-confidence and enjoyment of math and the relevance of lessons that students experience in classrooms are correlated with higher math achievement. Do nations with happier students score higher on math tests than nations in which students are not quite as happy?
Brookings Institution - Tom Loveless, 10/18/2006

High School Graduation in Texas: Independent Research to Understand and Combat the Graduation Crisis pdf
A report from the Editorial Projects in Education Research Center estimates that more than 120,000 public high school students in the state of Texas failed to graduate with a regular diploma last school year. The report found Texas' graduation rate to be 66.8 percent, much lower than the 84.2 percent the state reports.
Editorial Projects in Education Research Center - Christopher B. Swanson, 10/13/2006

Highlights of High School Initiatives
ECS launched a new database that includes highlights of promising state and district-level high school reform initiatives.
Education Commission of the States - Jennifer Dounay, 9/1/2006

State High School Exit Exams: A Challenging Year pdf
This is the fifth in a series of studies about high school exit exams in 25 states. the study concludes that despite a leveling off in the growth in state high school exit exams, the issue still affects two-thirds of high school students.
Center on Education Policy, 8/16/2006

Who's Counted? Who's Counting? pdf
This study explains why so many different graduation rates and statistics exist, addresses why states report them differently and discusses the limitations and benefits of each method.
Alliance for Excellent Education - Lyndsay Pinkus, 6/30/2006

Rethinking High School Graduation Rates and Trends
The authors argue that recent analyses of high school graduation rates exaggerate the problem. Black students, for instance, have a completion rate of 75 percent, not 50 percent, Mishel and Deepjoy of the Economic Policy Institute charge.
Economic Policy Institute - Lawrence Mishel and Joydeep Roy, 4/21/2006

Leaving Boys Behind: Public High School Graduation Rates pdf
This study shows public high school graduation rates in 2003 for the U.S., all states and the 100 largest school districts in the country. According to the data, the overall graduation rate was 70 percent. Female students graduated at a rate of 72 percent while male students graduated at a rate of 65 percent - this gender gap was more pronounced for minorities.
Manhattan Institute - Jay P. Greene and Marcus A. Winters, 4/19/2006

Young illegal immigrants get chance to learn but not earn
Federal law bans public schools from denying admission to illegal immigrants. Between 50,000 and 70,000 of them graduate each year from American high schools, up to 16,000 of them in Texas. No such law exists for public universities, though 10 states including Texas provide some form of in-state tuition aid to illegal immigrants. Jessica Meyers, The Dallas Morning News, June 29, 2010

Florida high schools boosting graduation rates by removing struggling students from rolls
Florida high schools have been boosting their graduation rates for years by transferring thousands of struggling students to adult-education centers and then removing them from school rolls as if they didn't exist.Dave Weber, Orlando Sentinel, May 11, 2010

As College Wait Lists Grow, So Does The Anxiety
An unusually large number of high school seniors this year are still waiting to find out where they're going to college this fall, because colleges have put more of them on wait lists. One of the 10,000 students wait-listed this year at the University of California is Jevante Davis, who had his heart set on UC-Santa Barbara. Tovia Smith, National Public Radio, April 22, 2010

No Child Left Behind embraces 'college and career readiness'
The current buzz phrase in education is 'college and career readiness.' It's even part of Obama's vision for a revised No Child Left Behind law. But what does it mean? Is it real progress in education reform? Amanda Paulson, The Christian Science Monitor, March 24, 2010

13% of seniors may miss out on high school diplomas
More than 8,000 Minnesota high school seniors are in danger of not graduating this spring because they have not passed state tests that for the first time will be required for a diploma.Emily Johns, Minneapolis Star Tribune, March 2, 2010

New Approach Would Let High Schoolers Graduate Early
In an experiment that could reshape American secondary education, high schools in eight states will introduce new courses next year, along with a battery of tests for sophomores, that will allow students who pass to get a diploma two years early and immediately enroll in community college. Sam Dillon, The New York Times, Feb. 17, 2010

Homeless in high school
The number of high school students who become homeless after turning 18 has increased dramatically in recent years, far outpacing the few housing assistance programs available to them, say advocates for the homeless. Some youths leave home voluntarily to escape abusive situations, and others are forced out by parents or relatives. Brian R. Ballou, The Boston Globe, Feb. 16, 2010

Large High Schools in the City Are Taking Hard Falls
The boos cascaded over the auditorium as a city education official read out the case against Christopher Columbus High School, one of the last remaining large high schools in the Bronx.Columbus has had "long history of sustained academic failure” and “chronically poor performance and low demand,” Santiago Taveras, a deputy chancellor, told the standing-room crowd. As a result, he said, it should be closed. But the frustrated teachers, soft-spoken students and former football players who stood up at the hearing said otherwise. They described a school that had served some students well, despite the difficult circumstances faced by many. They told of a school that, even after the city identified it as struggling, continued to receive ever-growing proportions of the city's most demanding students — the very students that needed the most help. Sharon Otterman, The New York Times, Jan. 25, 2010

Where They Are, Why They're Gone: Three 9th Grade Dropouts

About 12,000 kids drop out of school in Chicago every year. At Robeson High School, a special project this year has tried to keep freshmen on course to graduate. Despite that, students have slipped away—they’ve stopped coming to school for a whole variety of reasons. Once they’re gone, the chances that anyone will find them are slim. Linda Lutton, Chicago Public Radio, June 12, 2009

Two students, two schools -- 20 miles and a world apart
Meet Kyle Gosselin and Henry Ramirez. Kyle attends La Cañada High; Henry was at South L.A.'s Jefferson High before moving to Texas. Their backgrounds may be worlds apart, but their dreams are similar. Mitchell Landsberg, Los Angeles Times , June 22, 2009. 

Taking the $ATs

Before the financial crisis hit, eighth-graders across the country were scheduled to take a new test this fall*, their first to get into college. The exam is called ReadiStep, and it's a new standardized test that simultaneously says it's "low-stakes" while also being a "vital step" toward getting ready to get a bachelor's degree. But the test is not provided by the federal government. Nor is it a brainchild of state and local school boards or mandated by No Child Left Behind. It's provided by the College Board, the same organization that administers the PSAT and the SAT. Chadwick Matlin, The Big Money.com, 5/15/2009

No easy road

The Notebook explores what it takes to keep freshmen students on track to graduation.

Let's Talk About Sex
by Alison Lobron
With US sex education heading into its second century, some educators are suggesting that sex ed can, and should, be about more than just all the things that can go wrong, that adults need to do more than robotically recite statistics about condom failure or the merits of abstinence. This new approach, almost too small to be called a movement, exists largely outside the public schools, but it's a new twist in a debate that often gets bogged down in finger-pointing and name-calling.
The Boston Globe, 2/1/2009

The Local List: Challenge Index 2008 Well-Connected Parents Take On School Boards
For a new generation of well-wired activists in the Washington region, it's not enough to speak at Parent-Teacher Association or late-night school board meetings. They are going head-to-head with superintendents through e-mail blitzes, social networking Web sites, online petitions, partnerships with business and student groups, and research that mines a mountain of electronic data on school performance.
The Washington Post - Michael Alison Chandler, 1/30/2009

II Doesn't Always = II
by Michael Alison Chandler
From Northwest Washington to the suburbs of Fairfax and Prince George's counties, advanced algebra often appears the same from class to class: Students are expected to learn dozens of skills, including factoring trinomials, solving rational equations and graphing quadratic functions. But it doesn't always work that way.
The Washington Post, 1/26/2009

Denver grads face remedial work
by Burt Hubbard and Nancy Mitchell
Amber Mendoza is a freshman at Denver's North High School who is slogging through algebra and looking forward to the day when, diploma in hand, she can say goodbye to high school math forever. Except that, chances are, she won't be able to. More than half of all Denver Public Schools graduates who enroll in a state college or university must take at least one remedial course, according to a Rocky Mountain News analysis, and in most cases, that class is math.
The Rocky Mountain News, 1/12/2009

Principal challenges transient students
by Alexis Stevens
Osborne High School junior Charlie Santiago has moved so many times since kindergarten, it gets hard to explain. Students come and go throughout the school year at Osborne, as migratory families move often in search of work. The school's transient rate is about 64 percent. But principal Steven Miletto doesn't believe in making excuses. And his mission of uniting a school with a less than stellar reputation is paying off.
The Atlanta Journal Constitution, 1/5/2009

Facebook face-off: Student, suspended for blog rant, sues
by Jennifer Mooney Piedra
It was a Friday night, and Katherine Evans, a senior at Pembroke Pines Charter High, was fed up with her English teacher. To vent her frustrations, she logged onto Facebook and started typing. Two months later, Evans -- an honors student with no disciplinary problems -- was suspended for three days for cyberbullying and disruptive behavior, pulled out of her Advanced Placement classes and ''forced into lesser-weighted honors classes,'' according to a federal lawsuit filed on her behalf this week by the American Civil Liberties Union.
The Miamia Herald, 12/10/2008

The Smokestack Effect- Toxic Air and America's Schools by Blake Morrison and Brad Heath Read USA Today's special report examining industrial pollution and toxic chemicals and their effect on public schools. USA Today, 12/8/2008

Giving Students Cash for Grades
While growing up in Daytona Beach, Fla., Roland Fryer understood the benefits of becoming the best basketball player or the fastest track athlete in the school. But what Fryer did not understand at the time were the benefits of becoming a good student, and he suspects many other students in cities across the nation now are just as unaware as he was then. To help these largely poor, minority students comprehend the value of working hard in class, Fryer has partnered with administrators in three urban school districts to offer students money in return for their classroom achievement.
U.S. News and World Report - Jessica Calefati, 11/28/2008

Once-mighty SAT losing its clout
by Peter Schworm
Finora Franck didn't study for her first go-round with the SAT, and it showed. Now the senior at Boston Latin School is keeping her flashcards close at hand, hoping the algebra and geometry formulas will stick this time. Increasingly, colleges are coming over to Franck's point of view. The SAT (formerly known as the Scholastic Aptitude Test and Scholastic Assessment Test), that longtime teenage bugaboo and pillar of the college admissions process, is under heavy assault on several fronts.
The Boston Globe, 11/24/2008

Graduating ASAP, if Not on State Timeline
by Theresa Vargas
An hour and a half after his night shift ended at the grocery store, Jefferson Lara is sitting in art class, sketching warriors. Lara's education has never been neatly laid out in class schedules that flow into extracurricular activities. It mattered little to him that he wouldn't graduate with his peers in June -- he still would get his diploma. As the nation moves toward adopting a common graduation rate formula based on the number of students who obtain a diploma in four years, there are students such as Lara who will appear to have been failed by their school systems. They will not be counted as graduating on time. But what should be taken into account, educators say, is that many are succeeding -- just not on the traditional timeline.
The Washington Post, 11/11/2008

Special report: The dangers of adolescents playing football with concussions
by Tom Wyrwich
Ben Zipp's memories return in flashes. He lives with headaches that never go away and a fog in his mind that makes studying nearly impossible. And he lives with questions of what he could have done to avoid it. Concussions in high-school football, like Zipp's, are nothing unusual. Studies estimate that as many as 47 percent of high-school football players have suffered a concussion, and 35 percent have suffered at least two.
The Seattle Times, 11/4/2008

Suffering test anxiety
by Liz Bowie
Inti Guaman is a senior on the brink of either going off to college or staying behind to get through high school. It all depends on how quickly he is able to soak up vocabulary words so that he can pass his High School Assessment exam in English II.
The Baltimore Sun, 10/30/2008

Controversial fees: Metro prep athletes pay to play
by Todd Holcomb
At dozens of metro Atlanta high schools, football programs are asking athletes to pay in order to play. The cost, ranging from $20 to $500 per player, may cover anything from coaching salary supplements to uniforms. It's a controversial, complicated and potentially lucrative issue for many schools.
The Atlanta Journal Constitution, 10/26/2008

Deterred from Diplomas for Better or Worse
by Emily Alpert
Questions are rising about whether San Diego Unified has wrongly tagged some students with disabilities, deeming them unlikely to earn an ordinary diploma. Newly released data show that roughly 13 percent of disabled children in San Diego Unified have been marked as "non-diploma bound," some as early as first grade. Some have mental retardation or severe autism; others live with learning disabilities or orthopedic impairments.
Voice of San Diego, 10/2/2008

California's new 8th-grade algebra rule gets some poor marks
by Howard Blume
The new California state policy of requiring algebra in the eighth grade will set up unprepared students for failure while holding back others with solid math skills, a new report has concluded.
The Los Angeles Times, 9/22/2008

True to their faith, true to their teams
by David La Vaque
Mubarik Musa will wake up by 4:45 this morning to eat, drink and pray before going back to bed. Then he will rise again, walk to school for a full day of classes, spend about two hours practicing with the varsity cross country team and walk home without eating or drinking until about 7:30 p.m. Musa is observing Ramadan, the holy month for Muslims in which they fast from food and water from dawn to dusk.
The Minnesota Tribune, 9/17/2008

Educators focus attention on ninth-graders' transition to high school
by Seema Mehta
As Jessica McClain, 14, stood in line to get her student ID picture taken on her first official day as a Muir High School student in California, she was a churning mix of anticipation and anxiety. In recent years, taking a cue from universities, high schools have tried various strategies for first-year students, including assigning them mentors, creating summer programs to ease their transitions and giving them extra time to acclimate to life on campus. But now, educators are going further, giving the newcomers their own learning environments.
The Los Angeles Times, 9/15/2008

Does Catcher in the Rye still resonate with teens?
by Kerri Miller
A college English professor argues that the J.D. Salinger classic is getting a bit dusty, and would like to see high school students exposed to more contemporary fiction. Minnesota Public Radio examines which books should be considered the new "classics" for teen readers.
Minnesota Public Radio, 9/5/2008

We're Teaching Books That Don't Stack Up
by Nancy Schnog
McLean School English teacher Nancy Schnog argues that English teachers fail to adapt to their students and spur an aversion to great books of literature with dissections of text and other assignments that bore, rather than compel, students.
English Teacher, McLean School, 8/25/2008

Into the backpack: Books, pens, worries
by Emily Richmond
Adults tend to idealize the back-to-school rituals the new clothes and friends, the fresh starts and high hopes that come every fall. But many Clark County adolescents who return to the classroom today appear far from carefree.
The Las Vegas Sun, 8/25/2008

Has Student Achievement Improved Since 2002? State Test Score Trends Through 2006-07
The Center on Education Policy released "Has Student Achievement Increased Since 2002?" Student state test scores in reading and math have risen and the achievement gaps between groups of students---specifically African American and poor children -- are narrowing. CEP analyzed state test data from 50 states and trends from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)-the federal administered assessment of students on reading and math subjects.
Center for Education Policy - Nancy Kober, Naomi Chudowsky, Victor Chudowsky, 6/24/2008

The 2007 Brown Center Report on American Education: How Well Are American Students Learning? pdf
This year's Brown Center Report focuses on the nation's testing achievement, private school enrollment and the impact of time on learning math.
The Brown Center on Education Policy at the Brookings Institution - Tom Loveless, 12/11/2007

Reading Tests that Misread Children
Screening tests widely used to identify children with reading problems are being misapplied, landing students in the wrong instructional level and delaying treatment for their true difficulties, says new research from National-Louis University and the University of Maryland.
University of Marylan College Parkand National-Louis University - Rochelle Newman, Diane German, 11/19/2007