New Report Recognizes Five School Programs That Effectively Prepare Students for College and Career Success

SEATTLE — Five innovative school programs in diverse, underserved communities across the country are helping students succeed in high school and prepare for college and career. These programs share a common, effective framework of strong school leaders, rigorous coursework, and an emphasis on effective teaching, according to a new report released today.

Rethinking High School: Preparing Students for Success in College, Career, and Life is the fourth report in a series by WestEd, a non-profit education research firm. The report, commissioned by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, profiles programs serving predominantly low-income, minority students in Oakland, Calif.;Mabton, Wash.;Houston, Texas; Bridgeton, N.J.;and Portland, Ore. Their approaches vary, but each has demonstrated early progress, including improved test scores, graduation rates, and college enrollment for students.

In addition, five programs previously examined in a 2005 Rethinking High School report are revisited and continue to show strong results. Together, they are part of a growing national movement of more than 1,800 schools and programs supported by the foundation designed to ensure that all students graduate high school ready for the challenges of today’s global economy.

While the report highlights the programs’ innovative approaches and progress, it also underscores how they each address one or more of five common barriers facing low-income students:

• Inadequate preparation entering high school
• Perception that college is an unattainable goal
• Disconnected curriculum and low student expectations
• Inadequate preparation for college
• Insufficient educational opportunities for dropouts

“Communities across America face many of the same challenges in preparing students for success in high school and beyond,” said Tracy Huebner, senior researcher at WestEd and the lead author of the Rethinking High School series. “Through strong leaders, effective teachers, rigorous coursework, and personalized support for students every step of the way, the five schools featured in this report serve as models to other communities struggling with low graduation and college enrollment rates.”

The programs in the report demonstrate that there are many effective approaches to preparing young people for success in college, career, and life:

• Bridgeton High School, in Bridgeton, N.J., with a student body that is 51 percent African American and 28 percent Hispanic, has been restructured from a large, traditional school into small learning academies. One component of the transformation includes a 9th Grade Success Academy, which provides more personalized attention for every student in the critical freshman year. Research has shown that students who struggle in the ninth grade are far more likely than their peers to fall off the college track
• The Gateway to College program at Portland Community College in Portland, Ore., allows out-of-school youth to complete their high school education on a college campus while earning credits toward an associate’s degree
• Lionel Wilson Preparatory Academy, a charter school in Oakland, Calif., with a student body that is 82 percent Hispanic, is helping nurture a college-going culture through college visits and mandatory college fairs
• Mabton Junior/Senior High School, in rural Mabton, Wash., has implemented a school-wide college prep curriculum to boost the higher education prospects of its student body, which is 94 percent Hispanic
• YES Prep Public Schools: Southeast Campus, a charter school in Houston, Texas, with a student body that is 96 percent Hispanic, has aligned its curriculum from the sixth through the twelfth grades so that students know what courses they need to take from year to year in order to ensure they graduate prepared for college

These programs are addressing critical challenges in education today. Nationally, only 70 percent of U.S. high school students graduated on time in 2004, according to Education Week’s 2007 “Diplomas Count”report. The graduation rate for Hispanic students is 58 percent. For African American students, it is 53 percent. Too often, the students who do graduate are not prepared for college—only 23 percent of African American students and 20 percent of Hispanic students who started high school in the class of 2002 graduated eligible for college, according to the Manhattan Institute.

“Innovative programs like these demonstrate that all students can overcome barriers to success and thrive in an environment that holds them to high expectations and gives them the necessary support,” said Vicki Phillips, director of education at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. “Every student in every community deserves a high-quality education that opens up the doors of opportunity.”

Nationally, the foundation and its partners are focused on increasing graduation and college readiness rates by supporting the creation of new high-quality high schools and the transformation of existing low-performing high schools into more focused and effective learning environments. To date, the foundation has invested more than $1.7 billion to improve high schools, supporting schools in 47 states and the District of Columbia.

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WestEd
WestEd is a nonprofit research, development, and service agency, works with education and other communities to promote excellence, achieve equity, and improve learning for children, youth, and adults. While WestEd serves the states of Arizona, California, Nevada, and Utah as one of the nation’s Regional Educational Laboratories, the agency’s work extends throughout the United States and abroad. It has 14 offices nationwide, from Washington and Boston to Arizona, Southern California, and its headquarters in San Francisco.