College: 4-year

On Monday, December 12th, the Alliance for Excellent Education held a Webinar, “Expanded Learning Opportunities: A More Comprehensive Approach to Preparing High School Students for College and a Career,” where panelists Milton Chen, Senior Fellow at Edutopia;  Maria Ferguson, Vice President of the Alliance for Excellent Education; Jeannie Oakes, Director of Educational Opportunity and Scholarship Programs at the Ford Foundation; Brad

Not satisfied with solely increasing high school graduation rates, more districts and states are emphasizing the content and quality of high school students’ educational experiences, as well as their performance on academic assessments and enrollment in college after high school graduation. For example, Chicago Public Schools has begun including measures of college readiness on schools’ and students’ report cards. The metrics fall into three broad categories:

The California Comprehensive Center at WestEd conducted a research study aimed at identifying middle-to-high school transition practices  at California schools with graduation rates that were higher than predicted. They found that some schools used a “Regional Model” that leveraged collaboration and cross-school communication to ease transition and raise graduation rates.

This month, the U.S. Department of Education released two reports that raise important concerns as we think about the goal of preparing all students for college and career.

The National High School Center has updated the High School Initiatives Map with new information on state high school graduation requirements, university admission requirements, and the number of high school students in each state.  This resource allows users to compare each state’s high school graduation requirements and college admission requirements.

Looking for new high school-related resources?  Here are some pieces that other organizations have recently released:*

Looking for new high school-related resources?  Here are some pieces that other organizations have recently released:*

This week, National Public Radio (NPR) is airing a five-part series that focuses on the dropout problem in the United States. In an introduction to the series, NPR education correspondent Claudio Sanchez explained that the original impetus for the series was the state of the current U.S.