High Schools That Work (HSTW)1 is an effort-based school improvement initiative
founded on the conviction that most students can master rigorous academic and
career/technical studies if school leaders and teachers create an environment that motivates
students to make the effort to succeed. HSTW is the nation’s first large-scale effort to engage
state, district and school leaders in partnerships with teachers, students, parents and the
community to raise student achievement in high school and the middle grades. It is based on the
simple belief that most students become “smarter” through effort and hard work. School leaders
and teachers can motivate students to achieve at high levels when they:
�� expand students’ opportunities to learn a rigorous academic core with either a
career/technical or academic concentration that is taught in ways that enable students to
see the usefulness of what they have been asked to learn.
�� create supportive relationships between students and adults. These relationships involve
providing students with the extra help needed to meet challenging course standards and
with the support to make successful transitions from the middle grades to high school
and from high school to postsecondary studies and careers.
�� work as teacher advisers with parents and students to set goals and to help students
take the right courses that prepare them for postsecondary studies and careers.
�� focus school leadership on supporting what and how teachers teach by providing
common planning time and professional development aligned with school
improvement plans.
In this environment, more students will recognize that high school matters to their future
and more students will become independent learners able to set future educational and career
goals and choose which courses to take to achieve those goals. In an era of rising workplace
requirements, getting a good high school education that counts is more important now than
ever before. Yet, too many students do not graduate from high school and many more who
do graduate lack preparation for further study and the recognized credentials needed to get
good jobs.
To address these issues, the HSTW school improvement design provides a framework of
Goals, Key Practices and Key Conditions for accelerating learning and setting higher standards.
It recommends research-based practices for schools to improve academic and career/technical
instruction and student achievement. HSTW research has shown that sustained school
improvement and student achievement occur when state, district, school and teacher leaders work
together to take ownership and adopt the HSTW design for the specific needs of individual high
Southern schools or middle grades schools.