Can Española Valley High School crack down on truancy?

The ecosystem of D.C. charter schools that has evolved over the last two decades represents a cornucopia of creative and nontraditional approaches to education, in addition to fairly traditional college-prep schools, and is now producing some of the highest graduation rates, college acceptance rates, and average test scores in public schools in the nation.

The Highline school district in Washington implemented a radical strategy to break the school-to-prison pipeline based on mounting data that suspensions push students into a cycle of violence and delinquency. However, theories of replacing punitive measures with counseling and academic triage have proven difficult to translate from idea to practice, and teachers have resigned over fear for their safety. But one teacher at Pacific Middle School found a way to make the approach work, and the district is promising to scale his model, determined to meet their original objectives and reach kids that need help.

Young people are graduating from high schools and not ready for college level work. Liz Willen describes different initiatives around the United States that have provided solutions for improving secondary education. She addresses the importance of STEM, role models for students, and project-based learning.

Educational nonprofit OneGoal has proven that its model of education helps provide low-income students in Chicago and Houston with the tools needed to pursue a college degree. Now, the nonprofit hopes to improve the college graduation rate in New York City by assisting high school students in understanding the basic techniques to achieve success.

Nathaniel Rochester Community School 3 in the Rochester City School District in New York has a record of poor academic achievement, but a special accelerated summer math program had 16 seventh graders pass the Regents algebra test. Students and administrators attribute the success to having the program focus on acceleration rather than remediation and the genuine support from the teachers for the students.

Deer Isle, Maine, struggled to keep students in school; many students felt that a diploma was unnecessary, since they could drop out and join the lobster fishing industry. But the local high school found a creative solution to keep students engaged and ensure more opportunities in what can be a volatile industry. They redesigned courses to suit the interests of students, moving to project-based learning that explores traditional academic topics through fishing and marine themes, such as studying geometry through boat building. The approach has helped increase graduation rates by more than 30 percent.

After leading Seattle’s storied Garfield High School for more than a decade, Principal Ted Howard is having a crisis of conscience, wondering if his hard line with youth of color is hurting the very students he most wants to help.

Misinformation and misunderstanding about the law can lead youth to have accelerating confrontations with the police. Cleveland’s Patrick Henry School offers Juvenile Justice Jeopardy, a game that orients middle school kids to the facts about criminal justice. The game enables youth to internalize the information through an enjoyable format.

A public high school in Brooklyn, New York, hosts an annual camping trip for students to come out of their shells and get to know their peers and teachers over the course of several days of outdoor activities.

Oregon schools are leveraging the power of relationships to improve attendance and graduation rates for Pacific Islander and Black students. Community resource specialists step in to get students to school, doctor's appointments, family funerals, and more: “I’m honestly not doing anything special. I hate to say that, there’s no science around what I’m doing. It’s just trust and building a relationship and giving them the time."