A project of a University of Colorado Boulder research center that recognizes public high schools for what they do to give all students rich and engaging opportunities to succeed is now open to schools nationwide.
The Schools of Opportunity project is run through the National Education Policy Center (NEPC) housed in the CU-Boulder School of Education. It rolled out one year ago by inviting applications from public high schools in Colorado and New York. Nearly 100 schools submitted applications. In May, NEPC announced a total of 17 Schools of Opportunity in the two states with five receiving gold-level recognition. Read the list of initial awardees.
“We were all so heartened last year when we piloted this in Colorado and New York to see how much schools embraced it,” said CU-Boulder education Professor Kevin Welner, who co-leads the Schools of Opportunity project and is NEPC’s director. “There’s a real hunger to use research and best practices to build great schools.”
Today, the program announced it is open to public high schools nationwide and seeks to recognize those that use research-based practices to close opportunity gaps that result in unequal opportunities to learn in school and beyond, Welner said.
For example, although schools cannot force the integration of neighborhoods, they can do their best to integrate classrooms across races and social classes. And, although it is difficult for schools to create stable housing or make neighborhoods or homes physically and emotionally safe, they can strive to ensure that students are physically and emotionally safe while at school, Welner noted.
NEPC designed the Schools of Opportunity project as a way to highlight the nation’s best schools and practices. The project is co-lead by Carol Burris, the recently-retired principal of South Side High School in Rockville Centre, N.Y, and the 2013 New York State High School Principal of the Year. Burris currently directs the Network for Public Education.
Burris, whose school was consistently ranked high in popular lists of the nation’s top high schools, has noted that current programs aimed at identifying the nation’s best high schools include many top quality schools. But most rankings tend to reward schools that are affluent and/or enroll a selective group of students.
The co-leaders say the Schools of Opportunity project is about rewarding schools for doing the right things even if they do not enroll the nation’s top students. It comes at a time when policymakers, educators and parents are seeking alternatives to approaches that over-emphasize test scores as measures of school quality.
The project recognizes schools based on 11 specific principles identified by experts in the 2013 book Closing the Opportunity Gap. The specific practices include effective student and faculty support systems, outreach to the community, health and psychological support, judicious and fair discipline policies, little or no tracking, and high-quality teacher induction and mentoring programs.
The Washington Post’s Answer Sheet blog will announce schools that receive recognition next year. Read today’s announcement in the Answer Sheet.
Applications are now open and will be accepted through Jan. 20, 2016. Nomination information, forms and profiles of schools already recognized by the program are available at http://opportunitygap.org.
Support for the Schools of Opportunity project comes from the Ford Foundation and the NEA Foundation.
Contact:
Kevin Welner, NEPC, 303-492-8370
kevin.welner@colorado.edu
Julie Poppen, CU-Boulder media relations, 303-492-4007
julie.poppen@colorado.edu
