nahs.txt NEW AMERICAN HIGH SCHOOLS - COMPREHENSIVE WHOLE SCHOOL REFORM Date: Thu, 8 Oct 1998 17:43:15 -0500 (CDT) Revised info from an anonymous inside source. Jeanne =============================================================================== Two Texas high schools received an "honorable mention": http://vocserve.berkeley.edu/CW73/Conferenceintro.html Georgetown High School, Georgetown, Texas Leander High School, Leander, Texas List of national supporters: http://www.ed.gov/offices/OVAE/nahs/links.html October 5, 1998 New American High Schools: Another Vehicle for Federal Education and Labor Restructuring New American High Schools (NAHS) is an initiative of the U.S. Department of Education that promotes school reform by recognizing and promoting the replication of "exemplary" schools implementing comprehensive whole school reform. Based on NAHS materials and the NAHS web site at http://www.ed.gov/offices/OVAE/nahs, it is clear that it is yet another vehicle, along with school-to-work (STW), Tech Prep, High Schools That Work (HSTW), the Comprehensive School Reform Demonstration (CSRD) program, and a host of other initiatives, for promoting and implementing school-to-work, outcome-based education (OBE), Goals 2000, national skill standards (originating from the National Skill Standards Board (NSSB)), and the general restructuring of education and labor into a government-driven, centralized system lovingly known by educrats as a "seamless web." The NAHS initiative is housed in the U.S. DOE's Office of Vocational and Adult Education (OVAE). It is also probably not without significance that the new Director of the NAHS program, Dr. Gail Schwartz, had previously worked for three years as Team Leader for the National Partners, Research, and Outreach Team in the National STW Office. According to comments by Assistant Secretary of Education for OVAE, Patricia McNeil, STW dollars are providing some of the funding for NAHS. By visiting the NAHS web site (0000,0000,FFFFhttp://www.ed.gov/offices/OVAE/nahs/nahshow.html), you can find out "How Does My School Become a New American High School?" The answer is that you implement "comprehensive whole school reform," which is to say, the federal STW/Goals 2000/NSSB program. The web page starts off by noting that "The nation is working to reform K-12 education and build School-to-Work Opportunities systems in order to prepare all students with the high level academic and technical skills necessary to succeed in the 21st century." Noting the need for more of these "comprehensive whole school reforms," NAHS describes its model schools as "places where innovative instructional techniques, leading edge technology, enhanced and targeted professional development, community service, and integrated work based experiences and community based partnerships are utilized to transform the high school experience&helli;-" In addition to recognizing and promoting these New American High Schools, the NAHS office is setting aside funds for "linking the NAHS initiative to activities sponsored by several education reform networks" to "infuse New American High Schools strategies into network philosophies, technical assistance themes and products, and support and establish a nomination pool of schools for future New American High School recognition." In other words, NAHS is a way to legitimize STW and pass it off as a "best practice." Ten NAHS sites were chosen in 1996 by the U.S. Department of Education "with assistance from the National Center for Research in Vocational Education" (NCRVE). (As you may know, the NCRVE has been working closely with the National Center for Education and the Economy (NCEE) and others to promote and implement the federal STW program.) Based on the site descriptions in the U.S. Department of Education's "New American High Schools: Profiles of the Nation's Leading Edge Schools," nine of the ten current schools are textbook STW sites implementing career majors, Certificates of Initial Mastery, mandatory service learning, expanded career counseling of students, the integration of academic and vocational instruction, the elimination of ability-grouping of students, block scheduling, Tech Prep, and portfolios, etc. Many are also High Schools That Work sites. For instance, Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences has "an integrated curriculum in which agriculture is as important as English. Agricultural science is woven into all content areas of the curriculum&helli;-For Example, the French teacher asks students to report on the farming industry in France." This magnet school boasts its Tech Prep programs and mandatory work-based learning experience involving applied learning. At David Douglas High School in Portland, Oregon, students earn "proficiency based certificates." All of these "comprehensive high school" students must have a Certificate of Initial Mastery to graduate. Generally, students will also earn a Certificate of Advanced Mastery within one of seven "career constellations." "Everybody's got their [sic] own little part to do and to give to somebody else," boasts one student quoted in the program summary. At Encina High School, a comprehensive high school in Sacramento, California, teen moms can drop off their babies at the on-site day care center before attending classes on a block schedule within one of the five career academies into which all students are divided. "Based on labor market information and employer support," three academies are underway in health care, business careers, and graphic design. Each academy integrates academic and vocational instruction and requires students to develop "portfolios" to track proficiencies. And what is available for students not interested in one of the first three academies? For them, the "Academy of Career Exploration" opened in 1995. Meanwhile, all students have the benefit of expanded "career, crisis, and family counseling" through a partnership with the local university. Graduate students from California State University at Sacramento "get the hands-on experience of dealing with adolescents and the hard issues that face them, while Encina students benefit from the intensive counseling. 'It's a win-win situation' says [the school principal]." Fenway Middle College High School is located on the campus of a community college. All students belong to one of three "houses": Children&rsqu;;s Hospital, CVS Pharmacy, or Cross-Roads (related to the local science museum). Based on "5 habits of the mind," the curriculum stresses "the development of (1) perspective and viewpoint, (2) evidence, (3) connections, (4) relevance, and (5) supposition." At Sussex Technical High School in Georgetown, Delaware, the curriculum has been restructured around four occupational clusters that integrate academic and vocational instruction for all students. "Classes are block scheduled, with technical classes meeting each day for 90 minutes and academic classes meeting for 90 minutes every other day" (emphasis added). The list goes on. At the Gateway Institute of Technology, a magnet high school in St. Louis, Missouri, students are grouped into one of four career "houses" involving science and technology. In their junior and senior year, students are grouped by career major. Thompson School District in Loveland Colorado has reorganized its comprehensive high schools around six "career pathways" that integrate vocational and academic instruction and employ team teaching strategies. Each student has an "integrated Career and Academic Plan." Not content to leave any aspect of school life untouched by career majors, William Turner Technical High School in Miami, Florida requires school uniforms, the shirts of which come in different colors for each career academy within the school. As a result of their integrated curriculum, students complete a "2-for-1" diploma that includes "a high school diploma and state-certified, industry-recognized technical training." With the assistance of the Southern Regional Education Board, Walhalla High School, in Walhalla, South Carolina, has organized its curriculum around Tech Prep career clusters from which students choose (with the assistance of "career specialists" and, ostensibly, parents) in the eighth grade. The only New American High School that was marginally impressive one was an economics and finance magnet school that is located in the financial district of New York City and draws on the immense business talent in the area to support its program. Even so, students are required to complete work-based learning as a school component, there is no ability grouping, and students earn skill certificates. "Profiles of the New American High Schools" is concrete evidence that the national education establishment is truly serious about all the terrible policies described in the School-to-Work Opportunities Act and other federal education legislation. These examples of "best practices," held up for well-intentioned teachers all over the nation to see and imitate, scream "&helli;-and we mean it" to anyone wondering whether Goals 2000, School-to-Work, and national skill standards are just the ideals of a few eggheads on Capitol Hill. One can get a further sense of the direction NAHS is going by looking at their list of resources on their web site. The list was compiled for them by the NCRVE, and includes such STW stalwarts as the Academy for Educational Development, Center for Learning and Competitiveness, NCRVE, NCEE, STW Learning and Information Center, National Skill Standards Board, National Alliance of Business, Center for Occupational Research and Development, and the Southern Regional Education Board (whose High Schools That Work program has been made a vehicle for STW reforms). Missing from the list are organizations such as the Core Knowledge Foundation (known for its core knowledge curriculum), the American Montessori Association, and the Hudson Institute (creator of the Modern Red Schoolhouse curriculum) -- even though they are listed as examples of research-backed school reform models in the Comprehensive School Reform Demonstration program legislation. The NAHS web site is also promoting a study of preservice teacher education programs that use contextual learning to define models for integrated contextual teaching and learning concepts into preservice teacher preparation programs. The project is a joint initiative of OVAE and the National STW Office. Note: NAHS is distinct from the New American Schools Development Corporation (NASDC) which, according to NASDC materials, is a "private, non-partisan corporation" that was kicked off with the blessing of President Bush in conjunction with his America 2000 initiative in 1991. Its web site address is: <www.naschools.org.