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Highlands Today

Program Aims To Redefine High Schools

EFFORT FUNDED BY $150,000 LEGISLATIVE GRANT

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By MARC VALERO | Highlands Today

Published: January 1, 2008

LAKE PLACID — School superintendents in the six-county Heartland area agree there is a need to review educational practices at the high school level.

The 10 high schools in Highlands, Hardee, Okeechobee, Glades, DeSoto and Hendry counties have racked up numerous "C" and "D" accountability grades, but few "B" grades and no "A" grades, over their past nine years.

A review of data from 60 rural high schools, and the middle and elementary schools from those districts, show an apparent disparity in the performance of the elementary and middle school students compared to the high school students, according to the Heartland Educational Consortium.

In one recent year, while the elementary and middle schools received primarily "A, B or C" grades, about one/fourth of the high schools received "D" or "F" grades.

The Heartland Educational Consortium hopes to change the state of under-achieving high schools with a project called "Redefining the Rural High School."

A legislative grant of $150,000 is paying for some of the activities for this year-long project, which started in November.

"We are going to be looking at things successful high schools have done to improve their student achievement," said consortium Executive Director Frank Gibbs. "We are going to be looking at career academies and their roles in high schools. We are going to be visiting other schools that have demonstrated success."

Principals, superintendents and select staff members will discuss education reform with Willard Daggett, president of the International Center for Leadership in Education. These sessions with Daggett are designed specifically for small rural high schools and are being paid for by a consortium business partner.

The project includes a review of the international center's Reinventing the Ninth-Grade concept, which has already started in Highlands County with the Freshmen Foundations at each high school.
In the first quarter of 2008, the Florida Association of District School Superintendents will complete a focus study of teaching and learning in the high schools. A team will visit each school and interact with teachers, staff, students, parents and administration.

Additional educator training and focus sessions are scheduled in the consortium's effort to help the six school districts improve student achievement in the high schools.

The Heartland Educational Consortium is a regional, non-profit, educational service agency founded in 1996 to provide cooperative services to member districts in central rural Florida.

The superintendents of the member districts serve as the board of directors for the consortium.

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