At J. Sterling Morton High School District 201 in Cicero, Illinois, nearly 65 percent of the students are English learners. In 2014, the school started looking into how to create a culture where multilingual students were considered an asset. They created a dual-language program with an emphasis on pride and changing the status of bilingualism in…

First-year students in high school face numerous pressures and usually have to face high school finals on their own. It does not have to be this way as a school outside Chicago, Maine East, demonstrates with its Freshman Advisory program that has senior students mentoring first year students.

Donegan, an educational consultant specializing in 9th grade, asserts that when it comes to truly changing the freshman year, words abound but actions are few. Although everyone involved in the "high school conversation" agrees that the first year of high school is pivotal to success, few schools take on the challenge of truly reshaping…

Describes organization, curriculum, and challenges of operating the World Languages and International Studies Academy, an international-studies program (school within a school) in an Elgin, Illinois, high school. (PKP)

Over the past three years, the people of Arlington Heights worked together to define the learning outcomes essential for their students' success and redesign the curriculum to provide essential learning experiences. The principle of expanded opportunity led to restructuring the entire instructional support system, including grading and testing.…

An Illinois high school modified its practice of sorting students into five ability areas (honors, accelerated, regular, modified, or basic) based on eighth-grade achievement test results and artificial caps and quotas. The school now bases placement on demonstrated proficiencies and offers services to help students advance to higher levels. (MLH)

More high schools are experimenting with block schedules to provide longer class periods and decrease faculty workload. Since a Colorado Springs high school adopted the new schedule in 1990, daily attendance, honor roll participation, college enrollments, and earned course credits are all higher. Benefits for schools in Maine, Illinois, Ohio,…

Senior year of high school doesn't have to be a time of student disengagement, Dreis and Rehage claim. At New Trier High School in Winetka, Illinois, educators recognize seniors' readiness to contribute as instructional leaders in the classroom. The Senior Instructional Leadership Corps puts any interested senior into a working relationship…