Driving Real Results to Ohio’s High Schools
Through EdWorks, KnowledgeWorks Foundation continues to support existing OHSTI and ECHS sites. Each site receives intensive, on-site technical assistance, targeted professional development and frequent data collection and analysis, all integrated into a tightly-woven fabric of online and on-site support. After six years of intensive and productive work, Ohio’s KnowledgeWorks high schools are demonstrating significant results, including:
- Overall high school graduation rates in OHSTI schools increased by 32% from 2002 to 2008. During the same time period, the state graduation rate increased just over 2%.
- The graduation gap between OHSTI high schools and all Ohio high schools closed dramatically between 2002 and 2008, by more than 73%.
- Nearly eight out of ten African-American students in OHSTI sites are graduating - a 29% increase from 2002 to 2008, surpassing the state's graduation rate for African-American students during the same period.
- This increase in OHSTI sites happened at a time when the communities in which these schools sit moved from an average of 17% to 72% of students eligible for free and reduced price meals.
- ECHS report an average graduation rate of 91%. In addition, more than one in three ECHS students graduate high school with both a high school diploma and two years of college credit or an associate's degree. Others earn a range of college credits, shortening their time to degree completin after high school.
- More than 98% of ECHS 10th graders passed the reading portion of the 2009 Ohio Graduation Test (OGT). In fact, more than 90% of ECHS 10th graders scored proficient or higher on the OGT assessments in reading, writing, mathematics and social studies, outperforming the State in each of these categories.
The Keys to High School Improvement
There is no magic bullet to high school improvement. It requires hard work and determination. To start, the adults in the school must believe, really believe, that EVERY student in the school will be successful in college.
KnowledgeWorks Foundation’s work with OHSTI and ECHS schools resulted in a clear set of understandings that drive effective secondary school improvement. What was learned?
1. These schools succeeded because they realized failure was not an option.
2. Working together, teachers, school administrators, community leaders, and parents set high expectations
with a common focus.
3. Schools provided time for staff to collaborate and offered performance-based instructional strategies.
4. Leaders invested in ongoing, job-embedded professional development while holding teachers and students
accountable for success.
5. Through shared responsibility, the learning community experienced shared successes.
Building a Receptive Learning Environment for School Improvement
These best practices for a research-based approach to high school improvement include the following lessons:
- State, district, and school policies and practices must first address institutional structure, including the implementation of small, personalized schools in previously failing traditional high schools
- Curriculum must be constructed to meet the needs of tomorrow’s colleges and tomorrow’s workplaces, reflecting 21st century realities and opportunities
- Ongoing data monitoring , at the individual student level, the classroom level, and schoolwide is a key and essential component to school improvement
- Instructional approaches must be personalized through growth plans and short-term benchmarks
- Teachers must be empowered to bring change and improvement, and they gain that empowerment through relevant professional development opportunities
- Districts must identify ways to reduce teacher loads, both in terms of number of students and number of classes taught each day
- Successful high schools must establish planned, purposeful connections with postsecondary education, business, and the community at large.