High Schools

The Regional Educational Laboratory Northeast and Islands (REL-NEI) is one of ten regional laboratories and has a mission to help pre-K–16 educators use the best available evidence to make decisions leading to improved student achievement and reduced performance gaps. REL-NEI places a special emphasis on helping states, districts, and schools build capacity to use their data effectively; forming and conducting high-quality research and evaluation through new “research alliances”; and helping regional education stakeholders incorporate data-based inquiry practices into their decision-making.

The smart grid uses the most advanced digital technology to upgrade the aging, century old electrical grid in the United States, in ways that are radically transforming the ways energy is used and consumed. EDC has developed two three-lesson curriculum units that introduce high school students to the smart grid. In the first unit students learn about the smart grid and develop materials that will educate others in their community about the smart grid concept and its potential benefits.

Shaped with substantial input from high school educators, postsecondary faculty, and law enforcement professionals, the EDC-developed Law and Justice curriculum meets national academic standards as well as career technical education standards. The curriculum emphasizes the teaching of key skills essential to the fields of law and justice, such as critical thinking, teamwork, and communication.

The National Center on Scaling Up Effective Schools (NCSU), located at Vanderbilt’s Peabody College, is identifying practices and policies that make some high schools more successful than others at improving outcomes for low-income and minority students. Once researchers identify these effective practices, they will develop ways to transfer them to other schools in the same systems. The center is working with district leaders and teachers in the Dallas (Texas) Independent School District and Broward County (Florida) Public Schools.

This project is evaluating the Talk Science! program, led by TERC, which strives to enhance and study the development of teachers’ skills in managing productive classroom talk in inquiry-based science. The Talk Science! project is documenting teachers’ learning and closely studying the changes in discussion patterns in 18 science classrooms in urban, suburban, and rural schools. The project hypothesizes that aligning professional learning with conceptually driven curricula and emphasizing the development of scientific discourse will change classroom culture and increase student learning.

EDC, the University of Michigan, and the Center for Applied Special Technology are applying the principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) to enable science curricula to be customized to serve a wide range of student learning needs.

This project is nearing completion of Foundation Science, a comprehensive high school science curriculum comprising two semesters each of chemistry, physics, biology, and earth science. Stimulating narratives engage students with problems whose solutions lead to an understanding of major scientific concepts. Hands-on investigations supported by scientific literature help students reach those solutions. Initial materials from this project have been successfully field-tested with a range of student populations throughout the country.

The Ecosystems and Evidence project, a collaborative exploratory research and development project in partnership with Rutgers University and the Institute of Ecosystem Studies, addresses the question, “Can students gain an understanding of the nature of ecological science (NOES) in high school biology and environmental science classes that is useful and productive in guiding them toward environmental citizenship?” To address this question, the project will identify the essential elements of NOES, investigate how these can be taught and learned, and explore how NOES skills and understandings ar

The Boston Science Partnership was a five-year NSF-funded Math and Science Partnership project designed to improve science teaching and learning in Boston’s middle and high schools, enhance university-level teaching by STEM faculty, and ensure the university partners’ continued support for and faculty involvement in science education. The Boston Public Schools, the University of Massachusetts Boston, and Northeastern University are the principal partners. Harvard Medical School and the College Board participate as supporting partners.