Bill Gates's investment in innovative high schools starts to yield dividends

Parents Forum
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<p>SEATTLE – Faced with an alarming national dropout crisis and widening achievement gap, a growing number of educators, school leaders, and policymakers have focused their attention on high schools, replacing failing campuses with more innovative, high-quality options. This spring, stories about the Class of 2007 reveal that many of these new and transformed schools are on the right track, helping thousands of students who struggled in traditional settings or who might have otherwise dropped out to graduate well-prepared for college, career, and life.</p>

<p>It is part of a growing national movement to reinvent today’s high school experience by establishing high expectations for all students and supporting them to meet those academic goals. These new and redesigned schools aim to provide more challenging learning environments for students and teachers, more personalized learning opportunities, and stronger links between what students learn and the world in which they live. </p>

<p>“The key to student success is redefining our approach to the way we educate them, particularly those students who are facing many challenges,” said Oscar Santos, Headmaster of Boston International High School, a theme-based school that educates recent immigrants and English Language Learners, supporting students and their families through mentoring, native language support, and English instruction. “These new and redesigned schools share a unified commitment to ensure that all students are succeeding and graduating from high school ready for the future.” This year’s senior class is the first to attend Boston International High School for four years of high school—all 35 seniors have been accepted to college, most of them at four-year universities. </p>

<p>And while progress is encouraging, much work remains. Graduation and college readiness rates are too low across the country, demanding that we not only create high-quality high schools, but put in place successful models that can lead to large scale changes. According to the recent Education Week Diplomas Count report, only 70 percent of students in the class of 2004—the last class for which national data is available—graduated from high school on time. That means more than 1.2 million students dropping out every year. For African American and Hispanic students, the numbers are even more alarming—only half of African Americans and 58 percent of Hispanic students completed high school with their class.
Source: <a href=“http://www.gatesfoundation.org/UnitedStates/Education/TransformingHighSchools/Announcements/Announce-070629.htm?version=print[/url]”>http://www.gatesfoundation.org/UnitedStates/Education/TransformingHighSchools/Announcements/Announce-070629.htm?version=print&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>If you have an interest in similar stories, here’s another link:</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.gatesfoundation.org/UnitedStates/Education/TransformingHighSchools/Announcements/Announce-070609.htm[/url]”>http://www.gatesfoundation.org/UnitedStates/Education/TransformingHighSchools/Announcements/Announce-070609.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>Another key to success is the parents of the kids that aregoing to these schools, who are pushing these kids, and know they have to succeed, or there are no more chances, unlike the public schools hat have to take everyone, even kids that don’t want to be there, or those with parents who don’t support. And believe me, there are lots of those.</p>