Conceptualizing Essential Components of Effective High Schools

• In Event: Effective High Schools: Insight From the National Center on Scaling Up Effective Schools

Abstract

Research reviews on high school students suggest that three decades of high school reform aimed at improving disadvantaged student achievement has not resulted in substantially narrowing the achievement gaps (Becker & Luthar, 2002; Cook & Evans, 2000). There is little evidence that any single program or practice will close more than a fraction of the achievement gap and reduce high school dropout (Berends, 2000; Murphy, 2010). Substantially improving the learning opportunities for students from traditionally low performing subgroups will require multifaceted, integrated, and coherent designs (Chatterji, 2005; Shannon & Bylsma, 2002).

This paper presents the essential components of effective high schools that emerge from a comprehensive review of the high school reform literature, and provide a framework for how these components are implemented and integrated (Dolejs, et al., 2006; Murphy, Elliott, Goldring, & Porter, 2006).

The literature review identified eight essential components that provide a robust framework to more deeply understand effective high schools. The first component is a Rigorous and Aligned Curriculum, which focuses on the content that schools provide in core academic subjects (Gamoran, Porter, Smithson, & White, 1997). A second component is Quality Instruction, the teaching strategies and assignments that teachers use to implement the curriculum (McLaughlin & Talbert, 1993; Wenglinsky, 2002, 2004). A third component is Learning-centered Leadership that entails the extent to which leaders hold a vision in the school for learning (Murphy, Goldring, Cravens, & Elliott, 2007). A fourth component is Systemic Use of Data, including data to inform classroom decisions, and multiple indicators of student learning (Kerr, Marsh, Ikemoto, Darilek, & Barney, 2006). A fifth essential component is Personalized Learning Connections, developing strong connections between students and adults that allow teachers to provide more individual attention to their students (McLaughlin, 1994; Lee & Smith, 1999) as well as developing students’ sense of belonging (Walker & Greene, 2009). The sixth essential component is a Culture of Learning and Professional Behavior. This component refers to the extent to which teachers take responsibility for their students’ performance and the degree to which they collaborate (Little, 1982; Lee & Smith, 1995). The seventh essential component is Systemic Performance Accountability, both external and internal structures that hold schools responsible for improved student learning (Adams & Kirst, 1999; Murphy, Elliott, Goldring, & Porter, 2006). The final component is Connections to External Communities, the ways in which schools establish meaningful links to parents and community organizations or local social services (Ascher, 1988; Mediratta & Fruchter, 2001; Sanders & Lewis, 2004).

The conceptual review of the research literature suggests that school improvement in high schools is rooted in the above set of essential components; schools succeed not because they adopt piecemeal practices, but rather they organize their collective practices into a coherent and cohesive framework of aligned practices. In this paper we present specific examples of how successful high schools implement these components and suggest how these components can be operationalized to serve as the basis of the design of interventions that can address high school achievement gaps.

Authors

• Ellen B. Goldring, Vanderbilt University

• Joseph F. Murphy, Vanderbilt University

• Jason Huff, New Leaders