More High School Graduates : How Schools Can Save Students from Dropping Out

Increasing high school graduation rates is a major policy objective in many countries, notably in the United States. Yet the literature on how to improve high school graduation rates is weak. There are many proposals for different approaches to secondary education (e.g. small schools, essential schools, community schools) but little of this is grounded in solid empirical evidence or even reliable experience, and even less literature examines the requirements for improving graduation rates across entire systems or countries rather than in individual schools. This book will lay out a comprehensive approach to and agenda for increasing high school graduation rates across schools, districts, and larger systems based on a small number of key strategies. The book is based on a careful examination of the research and evidence on high school graduation from two main sources: a) the experience of schools and districts that have produced significant improvements in graduation rates and b) the strategy used in Ontario, Canada, which has increased high school graduation from 68% to 79% in a five year period using a multi-element strategy. Nature of Content: The book will be strategic but practical. The book will provide a strategy that has clear implications for action for individual schools or districts. It will also have suggestions for implementation, since making proposals without telling people what is needed to do those things is not helpful. The strategy in this book rests on three fundamental beliefs. - First, all high schools need to work on improvement. - Second, improvement cannot come from any single strategy; it requires addressing many aspects of the school'¬"s work together and in an integrated way. - Third, improvement is much more a matter of sustained effort over time than it is of brilliant design or policy