About High Schools That Work

An Opportunity for South Dakota Schools!

The South Dakota Department of Education has joined the Southern Regional Network Board as a High Schools That Work (HSTW) state.  Thirty-two currently belong to the HSTW network with over 1,200 high schools as members.  High Schools That Work is the nation’s first large-scale effort to engage state, district, and school leaders and teachers in partnerships with students, parents and the community to improve the way all high school students are prepared for work and post-secondary education.

Following is an overview of goals, key practices, key conditions, and vision for the program.  Also included are requirements for high schools that would like to become a member of the network.  To learn more about the HSTW program, contact Marsha Kucker by phone at 605-367-7680 or by email at mkucker@edec.org.

Goals

• Raise the mathematics, science, communication, problem-solving and technical achievement of more students to the national average and above.
• Blend the essential content of traditionally college-preparatory studies – mathematics, science and language arts – with quality career/technical studies by creating conditions that support school leaders, teachers and counselors in carrying out key practices.
• Advance state and local policies and leadership initiatives necessary to sustain a continuous school-improvement effort for both academic and career/technical studies.

Key Practices

• High expectations – setting higher expectations and getting more students to meet them.
• Career/technical studies – increasing access to intellectually challenging career/technical studies, with a major emphasis on using high-level mathematics, science, language arts and problem-solving skills in the modern workplace and in preparation for continued learning.
• Academic studies – increasing access to academic studies that teach the essential concepts from the college-preparatory curriculum by encouraging students to use academic content and skills to address real-world projects and problems.
• Program of study – having students complete a challenging program of study with an upgraded academic core and a major.
• Work-based learning – giving students and their parents the choice of a system that integrates school-based and work-based learning.  They system should span high school and post-secondary studies and should be planned by educators, employers, and employees.
• Teachers working together – having an organization, structure and schedule giving academic and career/technical teachers the time to plan and deliver integrated instruction aimed at teaching high-level academic and technical content.
• Students actively engaged – getting every student involved in rigorous and challenging learning.
• Guidance – involving all students and their parents in a guidance and advising system that ensures the completion of an accelerated program of study with an in-depth academic or career/technical major.
• Extra help – providing a structured system of extra help to enable students who may lack adequate preparation to complete an accelerated program of study that includes high-level academic and technical content.
• Keeping score – using student assessment and program evaluation data to improve continuously the school climate, organization, management, curricula and instruction to advance student learning and to recognize students who meet both curriculum and performance goals.

Key Conditions

• An organizational structure and process ensuring continuous involvement of faculty and a school administration in planning strategies to achieve the key practices.
• A school principal with strong and effective leadership who supports, encourages and actively participates with the faculty in implementing the key practices.
• A system superintendent and school board members who support the faculty and school administration in carrying out the key practices.  This commitment includes financial support for instructional materials, time for teachers to meet and plan together, and six to eight days per year of staff development on using the key practices to improve student learning.
• Leadership from the school superintendent and school board to involve employers and post-secondary institutions in the design and implementation of a school-based and work-based program to prepare students for employment and post-secondary education.
• A commitment from the school board to support the school in replacing the general track with a more demanding academic core and either an academic or a career/technical major.

Vision

Schools that become a part of the High Schools That Work network are expected to show progress in changing school and classroom practices in ways that improve student achievement.  Schools are expected to focus on practices that have proven most effective in advancing student achievement.

Site Requirements

• Commit to a three to five year effort – developing an improvement plan to cover that timeframe.  The plan should become part of the school’s overall improvement plan and should include staff development.
• Participate in assessment activities – NAEP-based assessment, student transcript analysis, secondary teacher survey, and student follow-up survey of graduates.
• Participate in technical assistance visits.
• Attend annual staff development conference.
• Attend a two-day site development workshop.
• Get at least 60% of the faculty 9including administrators) to vote to implement High Schools That Work as the school improvement model.
• Organize a school improvement committee/subcommittees to address curriculum, instruction, guidance evaluation, staff development, school climate and student support services.
• Complete an Annual Progress Report showing the progress the school is making to fully implement the key practices and conditions.
• Become an active member of the network by sharing information and best practices.