High Schools That Work provides framework for reform

In Mineral County, W.Va., school officials believe they’ve found their winning model: High Schools That Work (HSTW), developed by the Atlanta-based Southern Regional Education Board (SREB).

“Unless someone can show me something that’s better than this, then this is the avenue that people need to take,” said school board member Allan T. LaRue, who helped introduce HSTW to the county schools as a teacher in the 1990s.

Other educators apparently share LaRue’s opinion. Since HSTW was launched nearly 20 years ago, the program has spread to 1,100 high schools and 250 middle schools in 32 states. More than 1,000 educators attended this year’s annual HSTW conference.

So, is this program the “silver bullet” that solves all the challenges confronting public education? Not quite. On many levels, HSTW emphasizes the same educational principles and practices found in many school reform packages being offered across the nation.

For example, HSTW strongly recommends schools:

• implement a rigorous academic program;

• set high expectations for students;

• make good use of data-driven decision making; and

• provide counseling, tutoring, and other interventions for academically struggling students.

Such advice is hardly a revelation to school administrators and faculty, who, in theory, can put such practices into place without turning to an outside program. At the same time, though, many are at a loss as to where to begin. That’s why HSTW has proven so attractive to Mineral Springs’ high schools and elsewhere -- it provides a framework and direction that local officials find helpful.

“It’s a philosophy for school reform,” said Michael C. Burke, Mineral Springs’ director of general education. “It will tender recommendations, but the recommendations never give us one way to do things.”

Instead, HSTW calls for data collection and self assessment, he said. Teams of teachers and administrators at the schools use data to look at strengths and weaknesses in the school, and the program’s key points give teams “the template that they can use to mold our own individual steps for improvement.”

For example, he said, HSTW calls for rigorous academic standards and high expectations. In Mineral County, the practical response has been to require more classroom credits for graduation, require four years of math in high school, and add algebra to the middle school curriculum.

Higher standards don’t always equate to higher achievement, however, so the school system also has expanded classroom time spent on math in the middle schools -- and is putting a greater emphasis on reading and writing. Tutoring is offered during the lunch period and after school to help students make the grade.

Key to such efforts is the practical training and support that HSTW makes available to schools, said Gene Bottoms, SREB’s senior vice president and founding director of the reform program. HSTW also builds close ties to state education departments, who partner with the program by assigning a state coordinator to assist participating schools with training.

Unlike some reform initiatives, HSTW also emphasizes career and technical studies, work-based learning programs, and other vo-tech opportunities to show students the practical value of their academic studies -- and get them thinking about their post-secondary education, Bottoms said.

The program also is paying attention to the middle schools, reminding local educators that a weak academic program in the middle schools sets up students for failure in high school, he said.

Over the years, the program has proven itself a winning package, Bottoms said. Studies have shown that schools that successfully implement the HSTW design are more likely to see students meet academic goals. At Fairmont High School in Fairmont, N.C., for example, the percentage of students passing state tests rose from 47 percent in 2001 to 75 percent last year.

But such success only is seen where schools embrace the program. For some schools, Bottoms said, the reality is that HSTW exists largely in theory -- and it hasn’t made a big difference.

That’s a reality that faces many school reform models. Yet, Bottoms still has hope for these schools -- and will keep them in the program as long as they agree to complete the program’s required assessments. Over the years, he said, he’s seen schools drift for years -- then suddenly there’s strong leadership and a school staff that decides to get serious about school reform.

“Sometimes when you change principals every year -- or your faculty turns over -- you really do not sustain a core group of people who can create and start some momentum for change,” he said. “But, after a period of time, they eventually build that core that comes to believe in the concept -- and they start doing some things.”

Knowing that they’ve got a successful reform model, Bottoms said, SREB is starting to work with states to build up a stronger HSTW network of technical assistance, so that more training and support can be provided. The goal is to see more schools take full advantage of the program -- and see reform take shape statewide rather than on a school-by-school basis.