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Linking Research and Resources for Better High Schools

The National High School Center, based at the American Institutes for Research, provides the latest research,
user-friendly tools and products, and high-quality technical assistance on high school improvement issues.

Spotlight
New Early Warning System Middle Grades Implementation Guide

 This guide is designed to build the capacity of school- and district-level practitioners to implement the National High School Center’s Early Warning System (EWS) Middle Grades tool. The guide and tool support the establishment and implementation of an early warning system for identifying and monitoring students who are at risk of dropping out of the middle grades. (February 2013)

New Quick Stats Fact Sheet: High Schools in the United States

This fact sheet provides demographic and achievement statistics for high schools in the United States. It includes information about the number of high schools and high school students in the United States, as well as facts on students with disabilities, English language learners, school funding, transition from high school to college, and high school graduation rates. (December 2012)

National High School Center Fact Sheets: The First Year of High School and College and Career Readiness

The National High School Center has released two new fact sheets, Quick Stats Fact Sheet: The First Year of High School and College and Career Readiness: A Quick Stats Fact Sheet. The First Year of High School provides statistics related to the transition into high school, highlighting U.S. high school enrollment rates, predictors of high school dropout, and ninth grade transition strategies. College and Career Readiness offers findings and statistics on the current status of high school graduates' readiness for life after high school. It highlights some of the challenges and opportunities facing high school students after graduation as well as some of the consequences and implications for America’s underprepared graduates. Check out these fact sheets and learn something new!
National High School Center Early Warning System Professional Development Training Series

The National High School Center’s Early Warning System (EWS) team recently held a free, five-part Professional Development Training Series to coincide with the start of the 2012-13 school year. Each 30-minute training session succinctly highlighted different elements of the Early Warning Intervention and Monitoring System (EWIMS) implementation process. Following each training, the EWS team answered 20 to 30 minutes of questions through a free online chat within the EWS Community of Practice to continue the discussion. Learn more about these training sessions and access archived materials.

The sessions included:
  • Training 1: The EWIMS Process and Team Formation: The Fundamentals September 28, 2012, 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. ET
  • Training 2: Introduction to the New EWS Collator Tools October 10, 2012, 2:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. ET
  • Training 3: Effectively Using Your EWS Reports: Hints and Tips October 25, 2012, 2:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. ET
  • Training 4: Assigning Students to Appropriate Interventions November 8, 2012, 2:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. ET
  • Training 5: Progress Monitoring with the EWS Tools November 27, 2012, 12:30 p.m. – 1:30 p.m. ET
Early Warning System Tool Source File Collators

NewThe National High School Center’s Source File Collators are an ideal way to consolidate student data into a source file that can be easily imported into the Early Warning System (EWS) Middle Grades and High School Tools. These Collators are particularly helpful for schools or districts that maintain various pieces of student data in different Student Information Systems, or that are unable to generate a single report with all the student information in the specific order required by the Source Files. Each free, downloadable Microsoft Excel-based file includes a Collator and instructions for use. The High School Tool Collators can be found here. The Middle Grades Tool Collators can be found here. (September 2012)




Featured Resources
New Check Out the National High School Center's YouTube Channel

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The National High School Center's YouTube channel features the latest videos from our Webinars, conferences, and other ongoing initiatives. Check out the channel for our resources on high school early warning systems, School Improvement Grants (SIG), high school literacy, and other topics, and stay tuned for more resources as they become available!
High School Students

 New! Join the National High School Center’s Communities of Practice!
The National High School Center’s Communities of Practice serve as resources to support the high school improvement work of our stakeholders across the nation. The free, online communities on early warning systems, college and career readiness, and high school tiered interventions include threaded discussions, blogs, multimedia resources, guides and how-tos. Check out our communities for assistance with your high school work!

Learn more about how to sign up for the communities, or visit the Community of Practice home page.
High School Improvement Topics High School Matters: The National High School Center Info Blog
High School Matters, the National High School Center's Info Blog, is a new resource that provides an objective perspective on the latest research, topical issues, and events that affect high school improvement and other related national, state and local K-12 initiatives. Authored by staff and external experts from the National High School Center and updated several times per week, High School Matters offers insight into specific evidence-based information and resources for readers interested in staying abreast of emerging and recent high school improvement activities, as well as snapshots of promising and effective practices.
College and career readiness image Learn More About College and Career Readiness

College and career readiness has become a key priority for the PK-20 education community and the nation at large. Institutes of higher education and the business community have long expressed the inadequacy of a traditional high school education in preparing students for the postsecondary education or training necessary to succeed in these careers (Carenevale, et al., 2010; Alliance for Excellent Education, 2009), and the increasingly competitive global economy makes it imperative that all students graduate high school prepared to take on postsecondary life challenges in the 21st century.

The National High School Center conducted a scan of organizations that address college and career readiness and identified more than 70 such organizations, including those focused on policy, practice, advocacy, access and research. Through this scan, the Center identified three major strands of work and created the College and Career Development Organizer. The organizer is intended to help users traverse the vast college and career readiness landscape, encouraging conversations on each of the three strands and serving as a tool that can support the development of strategies and initiatives to better prepare all students for college and careers. Additionally, the National High School Center has created a series of tools and briefs to extrapolate on the College and Career Development Organizer and provide further insight into this increasingly complicated field of college and career readiness initiatives. An invitation-only symposium on April 24, 2012 in Washington, D.C. encouraged further conversations about the topic.

Learn more about our college and career readiness work
.