Media Room

The 9th Grade Summer School

A free program for students entering ninth grade. Students will gain valuable skills to prepare for attending high school. This one-minute video demonstrates how Phoenix Union High School provides transition supports in a summer Freshman Academy.

TEDx Talks: Getting Relationships Right

In this talk, Dr. Kent Pekel shares five essential actions that adults can take to build developmental relationships with young people in families, schools, programs, and other settings.

Success Team in Action at Hancock High School

This 32-minute video provides insights into a high school Success Team facilitating an accountable conversation about student outcomes using data and structured protocols.

Freshman Academy at Revere High School

This 32-minute video provides insights into a high school Success Team facilitating an accountable conversation about student outcomes using data and structured protocols.

See how Revere High School, located just outside Boston, MA, is addressing academic achievement and cultivating school culture by focusing on the 9th-grade year. Read more.

Teacher Teams 

A six-minute audiocast cohosted by Dr. Robert Balfanz, Director of the Everyone Graduates Center at Johns Hopkins University and Linda Muskauski, Knowledge Development Director at the Everyone Graduates Center at Johns Hopkins University. The pair discuss how teacher teams serve as the building blocks for high school redesign initiatives.

Can Dropout Factory Research Save a COVID Generation

EJ Carrion interviews Robert Balfanz to get his perspective on the most recent report from the National Student Clearinghouse that showed that college enrollment for low-income high school graduates declined by 29.2 percent. Read more.

The Power of Believing That You Can Improve

Carol Dweck researches “growth mindset” — the idea that we can grow our brain’s capacity to learn and to solve problems. In this talk, she describes two ways to think about a problem that’s slightly too hard for you to solve. Are you not smart enough to solve it … or have you just not solved it yet? A great introduction to this influential field.

Engaging Student Voices in Redesign

A group of urban high school students from Baltimore, MD work together in four groups to design a 21st Century high school.

Report Card Conferences

Report Card Conferences are held between students and non-school affiliated adults. Caring adults, which are typically caring adults from the community, review a student’s report card along with their Attendance, Behavior, and Course Performance. RCCs give students the opportunity to speak with caring adults who reinforce the value of success in school and encourage them to get help when experiencing difficulty.

Students’ Voices/Students’ Visions

High School students from a high school in Northwestern Baltimore City discuss four high school redesign topics.

• School Design
• Learning
• School & Community
• Business & Wealth

Watch on YouTube 

The Education of Omarina

PBS FRONTLINE picks up the story of Omarina Cabrera, who was struggling in middle school when viewers first met her in 2012. The intervention of teachers helped her find her footing and find a place in an elite New England private school. Now, she heads to college.

Watch on PBS 

Redesigning Student Supports

Redesigning Student Support Systems is a six-minute video which examines how high schools can redesign their student support systems using the A-B-Cs of Attendance, Behavior and Course Performance.

Staffing for Student-Centered Learning

Decisions about recruitment, hiring, and training teachers are central to creating success. Produced by our redesign partner XQ Superschools.

Student-Centered Learning: Building Agency and Engagement

This video from the Edutopia Schools That Work series shows student-centered learning at work at Maloney High School in Meriden Public Schools in CT.  Teachers discuss their role as facilitators and detail how student-centered learning tactics are used in their classrooms.

Student Agency & Engagement

Michele Cahill hosts a discussion with experts about how to co-create learning experiences with young people. Featuring: Travis Bristol, Research and Policy Fellow at the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education; Zak Malamed, Founder and Executive Director of Student Voice; Eliza Jane Schaeffer, Senior at Henry Clay High School.

Staffing for Student-Centered Learning

Betsy Arons, Geneviève DeBose, Hillary Salmons, and Michele Cahill answer questions and discuss ways to find and retain the best talent for your school. Featuring: Betsy Arons CEO of Urban Schools Human Capital Academy Geneviève DeBose National Board Certified Teacher and Commissioner of National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future Hillary Salmons Executive Director of Providence After School Alliance. 

XQ Superschool: Teaching & Learning

Michelle Cahill hosts a discussion with principals on the topic that every young person in every neighborhood deserves the chance to learn in deep and powerful ways.

XQ Superschool: PSI High

PSI High is an immersive, full-time program located within Seminole High School where students work in an environment that looks like a high-tech office instead of a classroom. Rather than learn through traditional instruction, our students join teams with their peers and teachers to solve real community, business,
and social problems.

The guide, Design Your Personal Learning Plan, from Problem Solving Incubator High School in Seminole County Public Schools provides an example for creating an individualized learning plan that combines face to face classroom experiences, individual advisors and project- based learning experiences across the school campus and community.
Download the Guide (PDF)

Sandborn Regional High School: Competency-Based Learning

Sandborn Regional High School produced a nine-minute video focusing on their Competency-Based Learning program.

Does Early College for High School Students Pave a Path to Graduation?

From PBS Newshour. In a Texas border town where nearly all high school students live in poverty, the school district is trying an experiment to get more kids into college. Instead of waiting until students graduate to enroll them in higher education, the school is pairing with a local college to offer courses for free. Hari Sreenivasan looks at whether this method for closing the college graduation gap is working.

Technology & Learning for an Interconnected World

Technology can help personalize instruction and prepare students for the future of work.

Equity in the 21st Century

Our experts discuss how to make equity central to all decision-making at the school and district level.

School Mission & Culture

Michele Cahill hosts a discussion with experts about how to build equity into 21st century learning environments. Featuring: Arva Rice President and CEO of the New York Urban League Sonja Santelises Vice President for K-12 Policy and Practice at the Education Trust Uri Treisman Professor of Mathematics and Director of the Charles A. Dana Center at the University of Texas, Austin. 

Staffing for Student-Centered Learning

Betsy Arons, Geneviève DeBose, Hillary Salmons, and Michele Cahill answer questions and discuss ways to find and retain the best talent for your school. Featuring: Betsy Arons CEO of Urban Schools Human Capital Academy Geneviève DeBose National Board Certified Teacher and Commissioner of National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future Hillary Salmons Executive Director of Providence After School Alliance. 

High School 2022 A Day in the Life

High School 2022 is a district-wide initiative to design, refine and deliver the future of high school for graduates in the class of 2022 and beyond. The Virginia Department of Education is currently developing the Profile of a Virginia Graduate, a framework that will be used for the State Board’s revision of high school graduation requirements for students graduating in the class of 2022. High School 2022 in Albemarle County, Virginia will be influenced and responsive to the Profile of a Virginia Graduate. Click to visit ACHS’s website.

Click here to watch a video about Profile of a Virginia Graduate featuring Billy K. Cannaday, Jr., President of VA’s Board of Education.

Mississippi Today: Vicksburg Warren School District, MS

Gabriel Austin examines Vicksburg Warren School District’s efforts of a new pilot program that exempts it and two other school districts from some state laws to allow schools to be more innovative in tackling the challenge of achievement gaps, particularly between white and minority and low socioeconomic status students and their peers.

Iowa Big

This program attracts students from across Cedar Rapids, Iowa, because it provides the opportunity to earn high school credit by working on real-world projects designed by students, businesses, non-profits and government agencies. While working alongside local businesses and experts, Iowa BIG provides students a canvas to develop and engage with projects that have a profound impact on their own community. For this, they received the XQ award for turning the community into a hub of learning.

Measuring Progress Toward College & Career Readiness

Michele Cahill hosts a conversation with three experts on how to measure and evaluate performance in schools. Featuring: Andy Calkins Deputy Director of Next Generation Learning Challenges Karen Pittman CEO of Forum for Youth Investment Antonia Rudenstine Co-Director of reDesign.

We encourage you to watch and complete these activities with a representative team from your school that will be leading your Early Warning System implementation.

The team could include:

• At least one administrator
• At least one teacher
• A counselor
• An individual who excels at using your student information system
• And other school leaders or representatives

Video 1: Early Warning System Introduction

Video one offers an introduction and overview of an Early Warning System, functions, teams, and the Early Warning Indicators (EWI) meeting.
Estimated Module Time:
20-25 minutes
Video Running Time:
15 minutes

STEP ONE: Download Video Viewer’s Guide.

STEP TWO: Watch video and complete the activities.

Video 2: Building a Data Culture

Video two focuses on setting up EWS data systems including, background information on key pieces of data, suggestions for organizing the data, and recommendations for creating focus lists to help an EWS team respond.
Estimated Module Time:
20-25 minutes
Video Running Time:
20 minutes

STEP ONE: Download Video Viewer’s Guide.

STEP TWO: Watch video and complete the activities.

Video 3: Linking Indicators to a Tiered Intevention System

Video Three focuses on how to link indicators to a multi-level, tiered intervention system and explores effective interventions.
Estimated Module Time:
45-50 minutes
Video Running Time:
35 minutes

STEP ONE: Download Video Viewer’s Guide.

STEP TWO: Watch video and complete the activities.

Video 4: Planning for Your School or District

Video Four focuses on building an EWS team(s) in your school; analyzing data and examining trends; organizing and holding EWI meetings; and how to best develop actions plans.
Estimated Module Time:
30-35 minutes
Video Running Time:
20 minutes

STEP ONE: Download Video Viewer’s Guide.

STEP TWO: Watch video and complete the activities.

Video 5: Getting Started

Video five focuses on getting an EWS started, identifying a point person and team, lessons learned from early adopters, and ideas for further exploration and development.
Estimated Module Time:
15-20 minutes
Video Running Time:
12 minutes

STEP ONE: Download Video Viewer’s Guide.

STEP TWO: Watch video and complete the activities.

Video 6: Lessons Learned

The sixth video examines insights and lessons learned from successful Early Warning Systems adopters. The video shares a few trends that have arisen and examples of how they have been addressed by different school throughout the nation.
Estimated Module Time:
20 minutes
Video Running Time:
20 minutes

Note: There is no Viewer’s Guide for this video.

Video 7: Intervention Review & Data Gap Analysis

The seventh video focuses on interventions, which we are describing here as the supports and activities that are being completed for a particular student or group of students. The videos also examines how school teams can collect data on the interventions that have been implemented and engage in a regular review process to identify gaps, align interventions, examine impacts and ultimately improve the supports that are being provided to students.
Estimated Module Time:
15-20 minutes
Video Running Time:
12 minutes

STEP ONE: Download Video Viewer’s Guide.

STEP TWO: Watch video and complete the activities.

Video 8: Introducing EWS to School Faculty & Staff

This final video of the eight-part series focuses on successful EWS implementation that relies upon a multi-level support structure with the whole school being organized to support students’ success in Attendance, Behavior and Course Performance. This can range from the organizational structure, the safety of students in hallways, to the type of learning that students are engaged in during their courses and must be designed particular to the students in your school.
Estimated Module Time:
12 minutes
Video Running Time:
120 minutes

Note: There is no Viewer’s Guide for this video.

In this episode, Dr. Balfanz is joined by Educational Resource Strategies Chief Executive Officer Dr. Karen Hawley Miles and Senior Manager Eddie Branchaud to discuss credit recovery and the challenges that schools face as they help students get back on track.

Hear about what Karen and Eddie have discovered as they look closely at the strategies schools across the country are using to help students catch up and thrive.

This is the second episode in a series of conversations with education thinkers from across the country. In this episode Dr. Balfanz is joined by Joel Vargas, Vice President of Programs at Jobs For the Future (JFF), a national nonprofit that drives change in the American workforce and education systems to achieve economic advancement for all.

It has become a common refrain during the last year and a half that we should not return to the pre-pandemic “normal,” but use the disruption to create a better education system moving forward. One big and bold idea from JFF involves reimagining the last two years of high school and first two years of college.