Purpose: School improvement planning has been a central part of school improvement initiatives for decades. Evidence suggests, however, that traditional planning processes are regularly superficial. In the USA, some principals have begun developing short-cycle planning designed to encourage school leadership teams and staff to develop, monitor and…

This study utilizes Clark and Estes' (2008) performance analysis model, which systematically and analytically clarifies organizational goals to identify the current and preferred performance level within an organization. The purpose of this study was to identify the knowledge, motivation and organizational (KMO) needs of site administrators to…

Many educators and education leaders have found implementing districtwide programming at the secondary level challenging. High schools are more organizationally complex than elementary schools (Grubb, 2010). High school teachers are deeply entrenched in subject specialties and tend to be resistant to change. This article describes how the Greater…

Last year, the California Legislature passed a new law--the California Mathematics Placement Act--to address widespread concern over equity in the math placement process. The law is aimed at improving the measurement of student performance in order to move more students successfully through the high school curriculum. In this context, researchers…

At the heart of the effort to enact and scale up successful school reforms is the need for more robust links between research and practice. One promising approach is design development, a methodology widely used in other fields and only recently adapted to education, which offers a disciplined process for identifying practical problems, assessing…

While academic interventions can be implemented in any grade, focusing on interventions in high school is critical because it is often a student's last chance to become ready for the academic demands of postsecondary education and careers. States across the country are implementing large-scale initiatives focused on delivering academic…

Too many students drop out and never earn their high school diploma. For students at risk of dropping out, academic, social, and other supports may help. "Communities In Schools" seeks to organize and provide these supports to at-risk students in the nation's poorest-performing schools, including through "case-managed"…

On the basis of the implementation of Schoolwide Positive Behavior Supports in high schools, the present study examined the effect of supporting buy-in through conducting needs assessments and focused professional development for high school staff when implementing Schoolwide Positive Behavior Supports. The effectiveness of the 2 additional items…

Integrated student supports (ISS), sometimes referred to as integrated student services, represents an emerging field of practice that aims to address persistent disparities in educational achievement and attainment. ISS is a school-based approach to promoting students' academic achievement and educational attainment by coordinating a seamless…

This article describes how to implement the four-phase curriculum review model, a simplified process for renovating a high school health and physical education curriculum. Although this model was used at a large suburban high school, it could be adapted for use by smaller schools or other disciplines. The four phases of this model are: (1) needs…

Too many freshmen students remain mired in the ninth grade, presenting a growing problem for America's secondary schools as they struggle to improve high school completion rates. In an effort to stem the tide of high school dropouts, a southeast Texas suburban school district with five comprehensive high schools engaged in a systemic reform effort…

"What You Need to Know About Starting a Student Drug-Testing Program" is meant to Complement, and build on information provided in an earlier publication, "What You Need to Know about Drug Testing in Schools." This booklet assumes that you as a school, administrator, staff member, or parent involved in the decision have considered all the…

The Ford Motor Company launched a new pre-engineering curriculum for high schools in the Fall of 2004. Building on an earlier manufacturing program, the development process for the Ford Partnership for Advanced Studies took approximately three years. Ford and the course designers wanted the new program to incorporate the best principles and…