High Performing Schools
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Equity & Diversity
The Battle Over Who Gets Into Elite Public High Schools
Chicago’s approach to admissions for selective high schools could be a model for New York City, where black and Latino students comprise a tiny share of students who are selected for its most sought-after high schools.
School Climate & Safety
Opinion
Friendship: A Sign of High-Performing Schools?
What is the most important way to measure staff culture in a school?
Assessment
Ohio Seeks Alternative Tests for High-Performing Schools
Ohio joins a small but growing number of states that are seeking or considering federal permission to excuse some schools or districts from state-mandated tests.
School Choice & Charters
Feds Give $40M to Help High-Performing Charter Schools Expand
The federal government is awarding nearly $40 million to charter schools in 12 states with the aim of helping high-performing charter operators expand.
Federal
Rewards for Schools Key Facet of NCLB Waivers
States that got flexibility under the No Child Left Behind Act have promised cash bonuses and other rewards to high-performing schools and those that show significant progress.
Education
Opinion
Creating the Capacity for Teachers to Design High-Performing Schools
At Mission Hill, we see what's possible when teachers have the freedom and autonomy to make meaningful decisions around the structure and purpose of the school day. What would it take to create more school cultures like this -- and what would teachers create as a result? Kim Farris-Berg has some ideas.
Standards & Accountability
Arizona Weighing 'Performance Funding' for Schools
Gov. Jan Brewer is backing an unusual effort to tie a relatively small portion of school funding to districts' performance on the state’s A-F grading system.
School & District Management
Opinion
The Best Bargain in American Education
Chester E. Finn Jr. and Jessica A. Hockett write that exam schools offer a great high school education to students that is both free and competitive.
School & District Management
Opinion
Education Reform: Competing and Winning with Collaboration
Alan Blankstein, CEO and Founder of the HOPE Foundation, is back with a guest blog. Today he describes real reform that is sustainable because it focuses on collaboration not confrontation.
School & District Management
Opinion
5 Ways to Build Sustainable Relationships Within Your School
Note: Alan Blankstein, president and founder of the HOPE Foundation, shares some of the work he has been doing to transform public schools with a guest post today.
Standards & Accountability
'Best High Schools' Data to Be Reviewed
Reports of faulty data led the statistics agency to review the data it supplies for U.S. News' high school rankings.
Standards & Accountability
Statistics Agency to Review 'Best High Schools' Data
The National Center for Education Statistics is rechecking data on about 5,000 high schools after faulty information from the federal agency led to erroneous rankings for the high schools on U.S. News & World Report's "Best High Schools" list.
Federal
Opinion
Top Ten Ways to Become a High-Performing System (Part Two)
Vivien Stewart, senior advisor to Asia Society, offers advice to districts and states based on the lessons from high-performing school systems.
School Climate & Safety
Opinion
From High Poverty to High Performing
I always cringe when I hear so-called reformers say poverty is "no excuse" for lack of student achievement. It is not because I don't subscribe to that belief, but because I know politicians will use that message as an excuse for not "leveling the playing field" for poor children. To believe that you can treat and fund all schools in the same way meets what many call the definition of insanity--doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. From collective bargaining contracts to federal law, poverty has to be a factor in every decision that affects the education of poor children and those who educate them.