To help reluctant high school readers, a ninth-grade teacher modified a pedagogy called the Socratic Seminar (the Paedeia Approach) based on the work of Mortimer Adler and Dennis Gray. A Socratic Seminar is a focused discussion on a short piece of writing. The process is explained. (MLH)

Although transitioning from school to school can be challenging at any level, the transition to high school may be particularly fraught with challenge because students are experiencing a change in schools as well as the physical, emotional, and psychological changes inherent to adolescence. Educators and researchers agree that ninth grade is a…

In this experimental orientation program, peer groups work with potential high school freshmen while they are still in the eighth grade, so that transition to high school will be easier. Groups consisting of two student leaders, and 10 to 15 eighth graders, meet for three 45-minute sessions, and engage in various orientation, visiting day, and…

Personalized learning: Everyone knows it needs to happen, but how? It is one thing to believe in the importance of high school reform. It is quite another to embrace a system that helps every student leave high school with a diploma and plans for postsecondary education or training that lead to productive and self-sufficient adulthoods. This…