High Schools That Work is the nation's first large-scale effort to engage state, district and school leaders and teachers in partnerships with students, parents and the community to improve the way high school students are prepared for work and further education. HSTW provides a framework of goals, key practices and key conditions for accelerating learning and setting higher standards. It recommends actions that provide direction to schools as they work to improve academic and career/technical instruction at schools and at work sites. These recommendations meet the criteria for comprehensive school reform.

The HSTW effort is based on the belief that, in the right school environment, most students can learn complex academic and technical concepts. The initiative targets high school students who seldom are challenged to meet higher academic standards.
As our nation seeks to maintain its competitiveness in the world economy, HSTW offers
school systems and schools a unique opportunity to prepare more students to communicate, solve problems, perform tasks and produce products - on the job and in a lifetime of learning.

To help schools customize site action plans in order to reach their improvement goals, HSTW provides intensive technical assistance, focused staff development, targeted assessment services, and ongoing communication and networking opportunities.
HSTW began with 28 sites in 13 states when it was started in 1987 by the Southern Regional Education Board-State Vocational Education Consortium. Since then it has grown to more than 1,100 sites in 27 states, including Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia and West Virginia.

High Schools That Work is the largest and oldest of the Southern Regional Education Board's seven school-improvement initiatives for high school and middle grades leaders and teachers. More than 1,100 HSTW sites in 27 states are using the HSTW framework of goals and key practices to raise student achievement.

All of these initiatives are joined in their goal to prepare students for careers and further education by improving curriculum and instruction in high schools and middle grades. SREB and an initial group of state partners launched High Schools That Work in 1987. Through the years, the work has taken on new dimensions as needs have arisen in the areas of middle grades education, transition from middle grades to high school, raising performance in low-performing and urban high schools, and raising standards in career/technical education. Recently, SREB received funding to work with states and institutions of higher education to improve the preparation of new and emerging school leaders.
The mission of schools in the HSTW network is to prepare high school students for both postsecondary education and a career by having students complete a solid academic core and either an academic, a career/technical or a blended concentration. Higher standards in the workplace and growing numbers of high school graduates seeking postsecondary education are primary factors in the need for most students to complete a challenging program of study.

Hall High School is in its second year as a HSTW member. HSTW is the engine that drives the school reform effort through the application of the 10 key practices:
· High expectations - setting higher expectations and getting more students to meet them.
· Vocational studies - increasing access to intellectually challenging vocational and technical studies, with a major emphasis on using high-level mathematics, science, language arts and problem-solving skills in the modern workplace and in preparation for continued learning.

· Academic studies - increasing access to academic studies that teach the essential concepts from the college preparatory curriculum by encouraging students to use academic content and skills to address real-world projects and problems.

· Program of study - having students complete a challenging program of study with an upgraded academic core and a major.

· Work-based learning - giving students and their parents the choice of a system that integrates school-based and work-based learning. The system should span high school and postsecondary studies and should be planned by educators, employers and employees.

· Teachers working together - having an organization, structure and schedule giving academic and vocational teachers the time to plan and deliver integrated instruction aimed at teaching high-level academic and technical content.

· Students actively engaged - getting every student involved in rigorous and challenging learning.

· Guidance - involving each student and his or her parents in a guidance and advising system that ensures the completion of an accelerated program of study with an in-depth academic or vocational-technical major.

· Extra help - providing a structured system of extra help to enable students who may lack adequate preparation to complete an accelerated program of study that includes high-level academic and technical content.

· Keeping score - using student assessment and program evaluation data to improve continuously the school climate, organization, management, curricula and instruction to advance student learning and to recognize students who meet both curriculum and performance goals.

 

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