Great American High School Campaign: Reforming the Nation&apos;s Remaining Low-Performing High Schools
Author: Balfanz, Robert
Date: 2018-10-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: High Schools,Low Achievement,Educational Change,School Turnaround,Educational Improvement,School Restructuring,Educational Legislation,Federal Legislation,Educational Planning,Alignment (Education),Needs Assessment,Capacity Building,Educational Indicators,Educational Assessment,Educational Finance

Students in America live in two educational nations. In the vast majority of high schools with 300 or more students, the average graduation rate is already at the national goal of 90 percent or more and dropping out is a rarity. In the remaining high schools, the average graduation rate is 49 percent and on-time graduation for students is only a 50-50 proposition. In the land of opportunity, young adult success is too dependent on where they live and what school they attend. This has significant consequences for their communities and the nation. It is time to change that by drawing on the lessons in recent years and new learnings to redesign the nation's remaining low-performing high schools. After more than a decade of progress in significantly reducing the number of low-performing high schools, there remain about 1,300 traditional high schools in need of serious improvement and redesign. All of these low-performing high schools are overwhelmingly located in distressed neighborhoods and school districts concentrated in 18 states. The remaining low-performing high schools sit at the fault lines of race, class, and inequality in America and many are located in areas of the country that are disconnected from the 21st century economy. The human capital and community resources available to reform high schools differ wildly among large urban centers, suburbs that have seen rapid changes in their student population, smaller cities and towns that have seen the backbone of their economy erode, and isolated rural districts. To successfully redesign low-performing traditional high schools, it is imperative that improvement strategies reflect and address the unique needs of their locales. The authors propose an initial focus on the approximately 800 traditional high schools that will be identified as graduating 67 percent or fewer of their students under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) and hence, in need of comprehensive support and intervention. In this report, the authors propose a framework for a campaign to redesign these schools with their communities in mind, understanding that the circumstances of each school may call for plans to be altered accordingly. A condensed outline of that framework, based on what has been learned from the past successes and failures of previous high school reform, is as follows: (1) Make it about the community's future, not past school failures; (2) Tightly align with state ESSA plans for low-performing high schools; (3) Acknowledge the obstacles -- and design the campaign to address them; (4) Get the needs assessment right; (5) Attract authentic community input on high school outcomes for the 21st Century; (6) Follow the evidence to provide a foundation for local innovation and customization; (7) Build networks to reduce social isolation, develop capacity and spread know-how; (8) Pair each network with a technical assistance provider aligned with the school's needs and community redesign vision; (9) Use a common set of on-track-to-success indicators for improvement metrics; (10) Fund core school-level improvement work with ESSA School Improvement Funds; and (11) Provide campaign-wide supports.