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District/School Resources orange arrow PK-16 Program Support >
Career/Vocational Technical Education

High Schools That Work in Massachusetts

High Schools That Work (HSTW), an initiative of the Southern Regional Education Board, is the nation's first large scale effort to combine challenging academic courses and modern vocational technical studies to raise the achievement of high school students. It began in 1987 with 28 sites in 13 states. There are now more than 1100 sites in 32 states.

Key Practices of High Schools That Work:

High expectations - Motivate more students to meet high expectations by integrating high expectations into classroom practices and giving students frequent feedback.

Program of study - Require each student to complete an upgraded academic core and a concentration.

Academic studies - Teach more students the essential concepts of the college-preparatory curriculum by encouraging them to apply academic content and skills to real-world problems and projects.

Career/technical studies - Provide more students access to intellectually challenging career/technical studies in high-demand fields that emphasize the higher-level mathematics, science, literacy and problem-solving skills needed in the workplace and in further education.

Work-based learning - Enable students and their parents to choose from programs that integrate challenging high school studies and work-based learning and are planned by educators, employers and students.

Teachers working together - Provide teams of teachers from several disciplines the time and support to work together to help students succeed in challenging academic and career/technical studies. Integrate reading, writing and speaking as strategies for learning into all parts of the curriculum and integrate mathematics into science and career/technical classrooms.

Students actively engaged - Engage students in academic and career/technical classrooms in rigorous and challenging proficient-level assignments using research-based instructional strategies and technology.

Guidance - Involve students and their parents in a guidance and advisement system that develops positive relationships and ensures completion of an accelerated program of study with an academic or career/technical concentration. Provide each student with the same mentor throughout high school to assist with setting goals, selecting courses, reviewing the student's progress and suggesting appropriate interventions as necessary.

Extra help - Provide a structured system of extra help to assist students in completing accelerated programs of study with high-level academic and technical content.

Culture of continuous improvement - Use student assessment and program evaluation data to continuously improve school culture, organization, management, curriculum and instruction to advance student learning.

Massachusetts joined High Schools That Work in the fall of 1995 in order to help school districts with career and technical education programs to implement Education Reform and share ideas for raising the achievement level of students in career and technical programs.

Maryellen McDonagh of the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education's Career/Vocational Technical Education unit is the state coordinator for High Schools That Work. Mmcdonagh@doe.mass.edu or (781) 338-3932.

Participating Sites

Blackstone Valley Regional Vocational Technical School (Upton)
Chicopee Comprehensive High School
Chicopee High School
Keefe Technical High School (Framingham)
McCann Technical High School (No. Adams)
Montachusett Regional Vocational Technical School (Fitchburg)
Nashoba Valley Regional Vocational Technical School (Westford)
Northeast Metropolitan Regional Vocational Technical School (Wakefield)
Pathfinder Regional Vocational Technical School (Palmer)
Tri-County Regional Vocational Technical School (Franklin)

High Schools That Work information including a directory of site contacts can be found on the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education web site at http://www.doe.mass.edu/cte/hstw/

The sites participate in the following activities:

  • A two-day site development workshop to introduce teams of faculty and administrators to the concepts of the program.
  • Three-year data-driven action plans developed with input from faculty leadership teams
  • A bi-annual twelfth grade assessment in mathematics, science and language arts using questions from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) test. A student survey and transcript study is conducted at the same time. Each site receives a printout containing approximately 100 pages of test analysis matching student scores to national results, student majors, courses taken, classroom practices, etc.
  • A bi-annual teacher survey that analyzes classroom practices and professional development needs of English, mathematics, science and vocational technical teachers
  • A summer professional development conference sponsored by SREB
  • Two to six day institutes addressing specific topics related to the key practices offered by SREB throughout the school year
  • District site coordinators meetings led by the state coordinator
  • Professional development events sponsored by the MA Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
  • Three-day technical assistance site visits to each school every three years by a team of national, state and local teachers and administrators to identify best practices, greatest challenges, and possible resources for raising student achievement


last updated: February 10, 2009
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