High Schools That Work

Key Practices

A key factor in motivating more students to meet the challenges of academic rigor is to combine reasonable expectations with sufficient feedback, which allows the students to see self-improvement; in other words significant use of short-cycle assessments. HSTW need to provide students with a challenging academic core and a specific curriculum that purposely tests them yet meets their interests. In addition and similar to the school-to-work programs, the academic studies must be designed to prepare the students for postsecondary education while exposing them to authentic problems and assignments.

It is imperative to make access to intellectually demanding career/technical programs available to students who are more career minded and interested in employment fields that stress the need for advanced mathematics, science, literacy, and decision-making ability needed in future employment and in postsecondary education. Gene Bottoms and colleagues found that placing career-minded students in a work-based learning environment encourages them to choose courses that incorporate rigor and to demand relevance in field-based experiences. HSTW has found success in proposing such courses and experiences when the program is designed collaboratively by the instructors and business decision makers.

Beneficial to HSTW are instructors collaborating in support groups from various academic fields in an effort to afford the time and assistance to help aspirants succeed in demanding educational and career/technical schoolwork. Areas where collaboration has been very successful include integrating reading, writing, speaking, mathematics, and science into career/technical classrooms.

One key component for effective HSTW is to have students actively engaged in intellectual and career/technical studies and work settings that are rigorous and challenging. The academic rigor, in order to keep students engaged, is designed to be at a level that challenges students without overwhelming them. Students' assignments should be research based at a proficiency level that is engaging to them.

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