It didn't happen overnight. It took more than 20 years of negative public perception, flat student achievement scores, and disengaged students and staff and community members, but finally, the staff and administrators of Barry Goldwater High School--a large, comprehensive, suburban public high school in Phoenix, Arizona--knew that the day had…

Educators across the United States are facing more pressure to have more success, with more mandates, more testing, and more accountability and are being given less money and fewer resources to make it all happen. Essentially, schools are being instructed by the state and federal departments of education to make up a king-size bed with queen-size…

Some educators see the Common Core State Standards as reason for stress, most recognize the positive possibilities associated with them and are willing to make the professional commitment to implementing them so that academic rigor for all students will increase. But business leaders, parents, and the authors of the Common Core are not the only…

High schools often are the anchor of their communities. Nowhere is this more so than in rural north-central Missouri where Trenton High School is the community. Over the last 10 years, this 400-student comprehensive high school mirrored the community's economic downturn and experienced a significant increase in students living in poverty--to the…

Three years ago, the authors accepted positions as high school principals in Buffalo City (NY) Schools after serving as elementary school principals in the district for many years. In their new positions, they were to lead schools that were designated by the New York State Department of Education as "persistently lowest achieving,"…

Research from the Schools of Integrity project identified openness, honesty, relationship-building, and constant rigorous reflection as key elements in schools that successfully balance academic rigor with ethical development. To translate these findings into the public school setting, the Institute for Global Ethics spoke to six secondary school…

From its inception, a primary goal of public education has been to develop self-discipline among students, best seen as them exhibiting socially and morally responsible behavior. This goal coincides with another important educational imperative, as well as an alternative meaning of the term "discipline": to correct misbehavior to create and…

Everyone knows that school is supposed to help students become responsible adults, but how can high schools encourage students to accept responsibility for the learning and behaviors that they will need to do so? One answer is School Counts, the work ethic certification program at Arkansas City (KS) High School. Through a partnership with Cowley…

As the principal of Baruch College Campus High School in New York City, the author wanted to help her teachers communicate with one another and put structures in place to develop the vision of the school while giving teachers opportunities for input and growth. After conducting a needs assessment, she found that teachers who had an ally in the…

When schools fail to improve, it is because educators do not think innovatively. What they do is largely a reflection of what they grew up with or what they were taught. Rather than do new things, they focus on working harder at the things that have produced limited success. That used to be the case at Holloway High School in Murfreesboro,…

This article features Duncan Polytechnical High School in Fresno, California. Respect, responsibility and resourcefulness embody the culture and mission of Duncan High School. Students are expected to live and breathe these words: Respect yourself and all others. Take responsibility for your actions and your school. Be resourceful and use your…

In this article, the author discusses small learning communities (SLCs), a term that is used to refer to the practice of organizing secondary schools into smaller units. Features of SLCs include small structure, curricular specialization and choice, a focus on the learner and learning, and, in particular, the active and collaborative nature of…

To teach students how to become contributing members of society, Park View High School in Sterling, Virginia, focuses on collaboration, diversity, and volunteerism. Since developing leaders is part of being a community of collaboration, a curricular component supports its efforts to model the kind of leadership it wants its students to develop. To…