Preparing all youth for academic and career readiness: implications for high school policy and practice

The purpose of this white paper is to identify the challenges in practices and policy impeding successful post-school outcomes for young people with disabilities, and to propose a pathway to enable high schools to address these challenges. This paper probes the challenges that states, local school districts, and individual high schools face in their mission to prepare all youth with the academic and career readiness skills needed to be successful in the global labor market. The probe identified five broad policy and practice areas that must be addressed by a range of policy makers at the national, state, and local levels to tackle what high schools can do to improve their approaches for meeting the multiple and complex challenges of all their students. These are: (1) instruction, curriculum, and structure; (2) assessment practices; (3) graduation requirements; (4) community and family connections; and, (5) data quality challenges. The paper's recommendations propose actions to be taken by a wide array of national organisations with a stake in high school reform efforts, as well as the Federal Government and foundations. The recommendations are geared towards strategies that will support reform within high schools, including charter and other alternative schools, in order to improve the transition process for young people and adults as they move into adulthood.

The purpose of this white paper is to identify the challenges in practices and policy impeding successful post-school outcomes for young people with disabilities, and to propose a pathway to enable high schools to address these challenges. This paper probes the challenges that states, local school districts, and individual high schools face in their mission to prepare all youth with the academic and career readiness skills needed to be successful in the global labor market. The probe identified five broad policy and practice areas that must be addressed by a range of policy makers at ...  [+] Show more