877-542-5504 877-542-5504

Want to Help Fellow Teachers?

Please help us grow this free resource by submitting your favorite lesson plans.

Internet Sites:

• Who Graduates? Who Doesn’t? A Statistical Portrait of Public High School Graduation, Class of 2001
This report from The Urban Institute Education Policy Center provides an overview of empirical findings on public school graduation rates. The study presents national, geographic, and state statistics and results; insight into student population issues; and statistics for graduation within particular types of school districts.
http://www.resultsforamerica.org/calendar/files/1UI_WhoGraduates.pdf

• Ready or Not: Creating a High School Diploma That Counts
“This report presents the starting point for restoring the value of the American high school diploma by describing in specific terms the English and mathematics that graduates must have mastered by the time they leave high school if they expect to succeed in postsecondary education or in high-performance, highgrowth jobs.” From the American Diploma Project. Link to a pdf of the full report or individual sections.
http://www.achieve.org/achieve.nsf/StandardForm3?openform&parentunid=F4D77F181E14ED7485256DB90062DBF1

• State High School Exit Exams: Put to the Test
This is the second annual report on state exit exams produced by the Center on Education Policy, an independent advocate for public education in Washington, D.C.
http://www.ctredpol.org/highschoolexit/1/exitexam4.htm

• Raising Our Sights: No High School Senior Left Behind (October 2001)
The final report of the National Commission on the High School Senior Year “outlines the need to raise our sights to prepare more students for college and an increasingly complex world of work, to enroll more students in rigorous academic programs, to provide greater economic returns, and to ensure that our democracy continues to flourish.” This report is available as a pdf document.
http://www.c-b-e.org/PDF/NCseniorrpt2001.pdf

• Guide to Online High School Courses
An overview of criteria to consider when establishing online courses at the secondary level. Questions/criteria are organized by stakeholder (teacher, student, etc.). The guide also includes a rubric to help schools determine quality of online instruction. Produced by the National Education Association.
http://www.nea.org/technology/images/02onlinecourses.pdf

• Telling the Whole Truth (Or Not) About High School Graduation: New State Data
An overview of the new graduation data requirement of NCLB and an analysis of the states which reported data to the U.S. Department of Education by the September 1, 2003 deadline. Produced by The Education Trust.
http://www2.edtrust.org/NR/rdonlyres/4DE8F2E0-4D08-4640-B3B0-013F6DC3865D/0/tellingthetruthgradrates.pdf

• Public High School Dropouts and Completers from the Common Core of Data: School Year 2000-01
“This report presents state-level public high school dropout and completion rates from the Common Core of Data. The report uses an annual event dropout rate and a 4-year high school completion rate and presents data for the 2000-01 school year.” Produced by the National Center for Education Statistics.
http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2004/2004310.pdf

• High School Graduation Rates in the United States (Nov 2001)
“The purpose of this report is to calculate and report reliable and straightforward public high school graduation rates. Rates are reported for all students as well as broken out for African-American, Latino, and white sub-groups.” Prepared by the Manhattan Institute for the Black Alliance for Educational Options.
http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/cr_baeo.htm

• National Commission on the High School Senior Year
“The National Commission on the High School Year will frame a visionary and profound report on how to improve the senior year as a transition to postsecondary education and the work force.” Includes a link to the commission’s preliminary report.
http://www.woodrow.org/CommissionOnTheSeniorYear/

• Office of Vocational and Adult Education: High School
This page includes Facts and Figures and Topics in High School Education.
http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ovae/pi/hs/index.html

• High School: The Shifting Mission (April 2001-May 2001)
“This six-part special report focuses on efforts being made to redesign the American high school to meet the challenges of today’s knowledge-driven society.” From Education Week.
http://www.edweek.org/sreports/highschool.htm

• Youth at the Crossroads: Facing High School and Beyond (Winter 2001)
This report provides an overview of available data on student achievement and school completion, and ends “with a look at some core building blocks for rethinking high school education”. This report was published by the Education Trust, Inc and is available as a pdf document.
http://www2.edtrust.org/NR/rdonlyres/85897615-327E- 4269-939A-4E14B96861BB/0/k16_winter01.pdf

• Transforming the American High School: New Directions for State and Local Policy (2001)
This report identifies “systemic policy issues and change strategies necessary to respond to this emerging crisis—on a large scale and in the fastest possible time frame” Published by Jobs for the Future’s From the Margins to the Mainstream Initiative and the Aspen Institute’s Program on Education in a Changing Society.
http://www.essentialschools.org/pdfs/highschools.pdf

• High Schools That Work
High Schools That Work offers a framework of goals and key practices that more than 1,000 schools in 23 states are implementing to raise student achievement. Site includes publications and materials that can be downloaded for immediate use.
http://www.sreb.org/programs/hstw/hstwindex.asp

• The New American High Schools Initiative
This is an initiative of the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Vocational and Adult Education.  It focuses on high schools that are committed to providing challenging academic standards for their students, standards that will adequately prepare them for higher education and careers.
http://www.ed.gov/offices/OVAE/HS/index.html

• High Schools of the Millenium
This report “examines the crisis of America’s outdated high schools as they try to handle the changing needs of today’s youth.” Published by the American Youth Policy Forum and is available as a pdf document.
http://www.aypf.org/publicatons/HSchools_round_3.pdf

• State Graduation Requirements
This site includes links to state web sites with information on graduation requirements.
http://education.umn.edu/nceo/TopicAreas/Graduation/StatesGrad.htm

• Teaching Today
“The mission of Teaching Today is to give secondary teachers practical strategies and materials that encourage and inspire excellence and innovation in teaching.”
http://www.glencoe.com/sec/teachingtoday/
 

Online Communities:

• High School Chatboard at Teachers.net
http://teachers.net/mentors/high_school/
 

Organizations:

• National High School Association
6615 East Pacific Coast Highway, Suite 120
Long Beach, California 90803
Tel: 562/430-1276 or 800/858-9365
Fax: 562/430-5607
E-Mail: info@nhsa.net
http://www.nhsa.net/

• National Association of Secondary School Principals
1904 Association Drive
Reston, VA  20191
Tel:  703/860-0200
Toll Free:  800/253-7746
Fax:  703/476-5490
E-mail: nassp@nassp.org
http://www.nassp.org/

• National Federation of State High School Associations
The National Federation of State High School Associations is the national service and administrative organization of high school athletics and fine arts programs in speech, debate and music.
PO Box 690
Indianapolis, IN 46206
Phone: (317) 972-6900
Fax: (317) 822-5700
http://www.nfhs.org/