Schools of Opportunity | |
---|---|
Location | Boulder, Colorado |
Founder | Carol Corbett Burris [1] |
Country | United States |
Launched | 2014 |
Website | https://www.schoolsofopportunity.org/ |
Schools of Opportunity is a project that aims to recognize public high schools that minimize opportunity gaps with outstanding education. [2] The National Education Policy Center, a non-profit education policy research center, created Schools of Opportunity as a project in 2014. [3]
The Schools of Opportunity project gives annual "gold" and "silver" recognition to schools in the United States. [4] The project seeks to recognize those high schools that follow practices such as supporting students' physical and psychological health, having outreach to the community, and having a broad, enriched curriculum. [5] It is built on criteria set forth in the 2013 book, Closing the Opportunity Gap. [6]
The Schools of Opportunity project believes that high quality schools are those that use research-based practices, and that standardized testing mainly reflects the student's learning opportunities outside of school; therefore, the project does not focus on how effective the school is. [7] [8] That is, the project illustrates an alternative to ranking systems based on test score, which overwhelmingly reward schools that serve wealthy or cherry-picked student bodies. [9] Schools submit initial applications explaining and documenting why they should be recognized with a reward. Then, after two online reviews and one school visit, the gold and silver recognitions are announced. In order to qualify for recognition, the school must be a public or charter school; it must enroll high school students; at least 10% of the school must qualify for free or reduced priced lunch; the percentage of students with Individualized Education Programs must not fall 2 or more points below the district where the school is located; the school must commit to ensuring all students have access to rich, challenging but supported learning opportunities; and it must be committed to non-exclusionary discipline practices. [10] While designated Schools of Opportunity do not receive extra funding, the directors of the project hope for them to serve as role models for other peers. [11]
Schools of Opportunity was founded in 2014 in New York and Colorado by the National Education Policy Center and expanded across the United States in 2015. [12] The project has been funded by, among others, the Ford Foundation, the NEA Foundation, and Voqal. [13]
School | Reward |
---|---|
Centaurus High School | Gold |
Fannie Lou Hamer Freedom High School | Gold |
Grand Valley High School | Gold |
Jefferson County Open School | Gold |
Malverne High School | Gold |
Center High School | Silver |
Charles D’Amico High School | Silver |
Durango High School | Silver |
Eastridge High School | Silver |
Elwood – John H. Glenn High School | Silver |
Fox Lane High School | Silver |
Harrison High School | Silver |
Long Beach High School | Silver |
Long View High School | Silver |
Mapleton Early College High School | Silver |
Sleepy Hollow High School | Silver |
Sunset Park High School | Silver |
School | Reward |
---|---|
Crater Renaissance Academy | Gold |
Hillsdale High School | Gold |
Leland and Gray Union Middle and High School | Gold |
Rainier Beach High School | Gold |
Revere High School | Gold |
Rochester International Academy | Gold |
South Side High School | Gold |
William Smith High School | Gold |
Boston Arts Academy | Silver |
Cedar Shoals High School | Silver |
Clarke Central High School | Silver |
East Rockaway High School | Silver |
New Vista High | Silver |
Northwest High School | Silver |
Oakland International High | Silver |
Ossining High School | Silver |
Quilcene High School | Silver |
Stillman Valley High School | Silver |
Urbana High School | Silver |
Washington Technology Magnet School | Silver |
School | Reward |
---|---|
Broome Street Academy Charter High School | Gold |
Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences | Gold |
Denver South High School | Gold |
Health Sciences High & Middle College | Gold |
Lincoln High School | Gold |
Seaside High School | Gold |
Hammond High School | Silver |
William C. Hinkley High School | Silver |
School | Reward |
---|---|
Casco Bay High School | Gold |
Clark Street Community School | Gold |
Native American Community Academy | Gold |
Pocomoke High School | Gold |
Salt Lake Center for Science Education | Gold |
Social Justice Humanitas | Gold |
Martin Luther King Jr. Early College | Silver |
School choice is a term for education options that allow students and families to select alternatives to public schools. It is the subject of fierce debate in various state legislatures across the United States.
A gap year, also known as a sabbatical year, is a period of time when students take a break from their studies, usually after completing high school or before beginning graduate school. During this time, students engage in a variety of educational and developmental activities, such as traveling, working, volunteering, or taking courses. Gap years are not limited to a year-long break and can range from several months to a few years.
Education policy consists of the principles and policy decisions that influence the field of education, as well as the collection of laws and rules that govern the operation of education systems. Education governance may be shared between the local, state, and federal government at varying levels. Some analysts see education policy in terms of social engineering.
Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) is a public school district that serves Montgomery County, Maryland. With 210 schools, it is the largest school district in the state of Maryland. For the 2022–23 school year, the district had about 160,554 students taught by about 13,994 teachers, 86.4 percent of whom had a master's degree or equivalent. MCPS receives nearly half of the county's budget—47% in 2023.
The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is the largest continuing and nationally representative assessment of what U.S. students know and can do in various subjects. NAEP is a congressionally mandated project administered by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), within the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) of the United States Department of Education. The first national administration of NAEP occurred in 1969. The National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB) is an independent, bipartisan board that sets policy for NAEP and is responsible for developing the framework and test specifications.The National Assessment Governing Board, whose members are appointed by the U.S. Secretary of Education, includes governors, state legislators, local and state school officials, educators, business representatives, and members of the general public. Congress created the 26-member Governing Board in 1988.
Alief Kerr High School is an Alief ISD public school located in the Alief community, and in the limited purpose city limits of Houston, Texas, United States. The school is a part of the Alief Independent School District and serves grades 9 through 12.
Student voice is the individual and collective perspective and actions of students within the context of learning and education. It is identified in schools as both a metaphorical practice and as a pragmatic concern. Tech educator Dennis Harper noted that student voice gives students "the ability to influence learning to include policies, programs, contexts and principles."
Centaurus High School (CHS) is a public secondary school in Lafayette, Colorado, United States, serving students in grades nine through twelve. It is part of the Boulder Valley School District and is a School of Opportunity. It offers International Baccalaureate, Advanced Placement, AVID and engineering programs.
Kevin G. Welner is professor of education at the University of Colorado Boulder School of Education, where he chairs the Educational Foundations Policy and Practice program area. He co-founded and is Director of the National Education Policy Center. He has authored or edited 11 books and more than 100 articles and book chapters concerning education policy and law.
Eastern High School is a public high school in Washington, D.C. The school is located on the eastern edge of the Capitol Hill neighborhood, at the intersection of 17th Street and East Capital Street Northeast. Eastern was a part of the District of Columbia Public Schools restructuring project, reopening in 2011 to incoming first-year students and growing by a grade level each year. It graduated its first class in 2015. In addition, Eastern was designated an International Baccalaureate school in 2013 and awarded its first IB diploma in 2015. As of the 2022–2023 school year, it educates 766 students in grades 9 through 12.
Christia Mercer is an American philosopher and the Gustave M. Berne Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Columbia University. She is known for her work on the history of early modern philosophy, the history of Platonism, and the history of gender. She has received national attention for her work teaching in prisons and advocating for educational opportunities for incarcerated people. She is the Director and Founder of the Center for New Narratives in Philosophy at Columbia University, which "supports innovative research in the history of philosophy and promotes diversity in the teaching and practice of philosophy." She is the editor of Oxford Philosophical Concepts, co-editor of Oxford New Histories of Philosophy, and was elected to serve as president of the American Philosophical Association, Eastern Division, 2019–20.
The censorship of student media in the United States is the suppression of student-run news operations' free speech by school administrative bodies, typically state schools. This consists of schools using their authority to control the funding and distribution of publications, taking down articles, and preventing distribution. Some forms of student media censorship extend to expression not funded by or under the official auspices of the school system or college.
The National Summer Learning Association (NSLA) is an organization in the United States that claims to aspire "for every child to be safe, healthy, and engaged in learning during the summer."
ACT, Inc. is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, primarily known for the ACT, a standardized test designed to assess high school students' academic achievement and college readiness. For the U.S. high school graduating class of 2019, 52 percent of graduates had taken the ACT test; the more than 1.78 million students included virtually all high school graduates in 17 states.
Crater Renaissance Academy of Arts and Sciences is a public high school located in Jackson County, Oregon, United States. It is one of three public high schools in Oregon's School District 6, serving the Southern Oregon communities of Central Point, Gold Hill and Sams Valley.
The News Literacy Project (NLP) is an American nonpartisan national education nonprofit, based in Washington, D.C., that provides resources for educators, students, and the general public to help them learn to identify credible information, recognize misinformation and disinformation, and determine what they can trust, share, and act on. It was founded in 2008 by Alan C. Miller, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter at the Los Angeles Times' Washington bureau.
Glenn Allen Youngkin is an American businessman and politician serving as the 74th governor of Virginia since 2022. A member of the Republican Party, he spent 25 years at the private-equity firm The Carlyle Group, where he became co-CEO in 2018. He resigned from the position in 2020 to run for governor.
Glenn Youngkin became the 74th governor of Virginia on January 15, 2022.
Center for Inspired Teaching is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C.