Resources

Breaking Ranks II: Strategies for Leading High School Reform (Reston, VA: National Association of Secondary School Principals, 2004). Executive summary is available online at: www.nassp.org/breakingranks/breakingranks2.cfm

Outlines strategies for reform that have proven successful in all types of high schools. A must-read for anyone involved in secondary education.

The Comprehensive High School Today, edited by Floyd M. Hammack (New York, NY: Teachers College Press, 2004). An anthology of articles that weigh current reform efforts in their sociological and historical context.

Crisis or Possibility? Conversations About the American High School, by James Harvey & Naomi Housman (Washington, DC: National High School Alliance, 2004). www.hsalliance.org/_downloads/home/crisis_or_possibility.pdf

Offers an up-to-the-minute look at the key issues involved in reforming the nation's public high schools. The National High School Alliance includes many of the major players in the national reform movement.

Essentials of High School Reform: New Forms of Assessment and Contextual Teaching and Learning, edited by Betsy Brand (Washington, DC: American Youth Policy Forum, 2003). www.aypf.org/pdf/EssentialsofHighSchoolReform.pdf

Looks at reform efforts that incorporate industry-valued, career-oriented, contextual learning skills, as well as the assessments that work best with this approach.

High Time for High School Reform: Early Findings From the Evaluation of the National School District and Network Grants Program, by American Institutes of Research & SRI International (Seattle, WA: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, 2003). www.ecs.org/html/Document.asp?chouseid=4919

Profiles the 21 high schools and 12 grantee organizations that were originally awarded funding from the Gates Foundation as part of the National School District and Network Grants program.

Leading Effective Secondary School Reform: Your Guide to Strategies That Work, by Mikie Loughridge & Loren R. Tarantino (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, in press).

A practical guide to effective leadership for schools undergoing reform. Emphasizes collaboration, shared decisionmaking, and the development of professional learning communities.

"Reform at the Top: Improving High Schools Calls for Comprehensive Change, Not Piecemeal Tinkering," by Susan Black (American School Board Journal, May 2004: Vol. 191, No. 5, pp. 36-38). www.asbj.com/2004/05/0504research.html

A concise and up-to-date introduction to the topic with a good reference list. Addresses the implementation problems that arise in many school reform efforts.

On the Web

Stanford University's School Redesign Network has a great Web site that draws together a multitude of resources on redesigning large schools to create more personal learning communities. www.schoolredesign.net

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, a major driving force in the movement to reform the nation's high schools, has a comprehensive Web site devoted to this work. www.gatesfoundation.org/Education/TransformingHighSchools/

The Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory (NWREL) coordinates assistance to schools and districts around the country that have been awarded U.S. Department of Education grants to work toward creating smaller learning communities. www.nwrel.org/scpd/sslc/

Features

Northwest Education is available online in both PDF and HTML versions. Look for Web exclusives, marked with .