Improving Instructional Content and Practice in Low-Performing High Schools
Low-performing high schools serving disadvantaged students are more likely to have less experienced and less knowledgeable teachers than other schools. MDRC’s recent evaluations of three high school reform models — Career Academies, First Things First, and Talent Development — have addressed questions about how to improve the content and delivery of what is taught in high schools through the use of new curricula and through professional development. Together, these studies suggest that structural changes to improve personalization (for instance, creating small learning communities) and instructional improvement are the twin pillars of high school reform. While only limited data are available linking instructional improvement efforts to changes in student outcomes, the experiences of program developers and of participating schools and teachers suggest a number of operational lessons about putting instructional improvement efforts in place:
- It may not be realistic to expect teachers to create their own curricula reflecting the themes of small learning communities; instead, they are likely to benefit from well-designed curricula and lesson plans that have already been developed. First Things First’s developers expected teachers to integrate the theme of their small learning communities into their classes, but teachers said that they had neither time nor training to do this, and field research observations and interviews indicate that thematic instruction was uncommon. Similarly, teachers of academic subjects in the Career Academies generally followed the standard curriculum, rather than creating lessons that reflected their Academy’s occupational focus.
- Good advance training and ongoing coaching can help teachers make better use of even well-designed curricula. Teachers in Talent Development schools who received training on teaching the catch-up courses reported that the training had helped them deliver their lessons more effectively.
- There is suggestive evidence that student achievement may be enhanced by professional development activities that involve teachers working together to align curricula with standards, review assignments for rigor, and discuss ways of making classroom activities more engaging. The expansion-site high school that the First Things First developer and researchers agreed had made the most progress in developing “professional learning communities” of teachers — who met regularly to discuss pedagogy — showed positive impacts on reading achievement.
- Both academic departments and small learning communities should be regarded as key venues for instructional improvement. First Things First developers initially sought to focus instructional improvement efforts on the small learning community. But they came to realize that while the small learning community is an appropriate setting for professional development directed toward improving pedagogical methods, teachers look to other department members as repositories of content expertise and, therefore, that departments should be incorporated into initiatives to improve instructional quality.
- If administrators want teachers’ meetings to focus on instructional improvement, they must both provide guidance about how to do this and follow up to ensure that meeting time is used productively. Researchers’ observations of teachers’ meetings in small learning communities revealed that, without specific direction about how to spend their time together, teachers talked mostly about matters unrelated to instruction (such as discipline issues, individual students’ personal or academic problems, or planned small learning community field trips or celebrations). When administrators issued guidelines specifying that meetings were to focus on instruction — and when they sat in on these meetings — discussion centered instead on pedagogical concerns.
This Issue Focus is adapted from Meeting Five Critical Challenges of High School Reform: Lessons on Research from Three Reform Models by Janet Quint, published by MDRC in May 2006.
Key Documents
The Challenge of Scaling Up Educational Reform: Findings and Lessons from First Things First by Janet Quint, Howard S. Bloom, Alison Rebeck Black, and LaFleur Stephens with Theresa M. Akey (2005)
Making Progress Toward Graduation: Evidence from the Talent Development High School Model by James J. Kemple, Corinne Herlihy, and Thomas J. Smith (2005)
Career Academies: Impacts on Labor Market Outcomes and Educational Attainment by James J. Kemple with Judith Scott-Clayton (2004)
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