Next Generation High Schools

The United States Department of Education has released guidance on stragies for supporting innovation in high schools.

Spoiler alert: Nothing in these proposals are new to educators who have been promoting these ideas for years.

Read more about the White House’s Next Generation High Schools 

Using Evidence to Create Next Generation High Schools

This document highlights six general evidence-based strategies to improve America’s high schools for the next generation. The six evidence-based strategies in this document can be used to create Next Generation High Schools that improve important student outcomes, such as high school completion and readiness for college and careers. They provide a number of options that when combined with each other or with other successful interventions may provide a full, engaging high school experience. Though many of the effective strategies may share common features, each has been identified by the research literature as a stand-alone intervention or model for improving students’ educational outcomes. Reviewed strategies for enhancing students’ high school and college outcomes include:

1. participation in rigorous curriculum
2. small learning communities/small schools of choice;
3. career academies;
4. dual enrollment;
5. early college high schools;
6. college and career counseling.