The Southern Regional Education Board's High Schools That Work is the nation's largest and fastest-growing effort to combine challenging academic courses and modern vocational studies to raise the achievement of high school students. The initiative was established in 1987 by the SREB-State Vocational Education Consortium, a partnership of SREB, states, school systems and school sites. Through Grant funding the Central R-III Schools chose to participate in this initiative and started to implement the 10 key practices beginning with the 2003-2004 school year.

High Schools That Work is based on the belief that most students can master complex academic and technical concepts if schools create an environment that encourages students to make the effort to succeed. Member schools implement 10 key practices for changing what is expected of students, what they are taught and how they are taught.

Key Practices

· High expectations - setting higher expectations and getting more students to meet them.
· Vocational studies - increasing access to intellectually challenging vocational and technical studies, with a major emphasis on using high-level mathematics, science, language arts and problem-solving skills in the modern workplace and in preparation for continued learning.
· Academic studies - increasing access to academic studies that teach the essential concepts from the college preparatory curriculum by encouraging students to use academic content and skills to address real-world projects and problems.
· Program of study - having students complete a challenging program of study with an upgraded academic core and a major.
· Work-based learning - giving students and their parents the choice of a system that integrates school-based and work-based learning. The system should span high school and postsecondary studies and should be planned by educators, employers and employees.
· Teachers working together - having an organization, structure and schedule giving academic and vocational teachers the time to plan and deliver integrated instruction aimed at teaching high-level academic and technical content.
· Students actively engaged - getting every student involved in rigorous and challenging learning.
· Guidance - involving each student and his or her parents in a guidance and advising system that ensures the completion of an accelerated program of study with an in-depth academic or vocational-technical major.
· Extra help - providing a structured system of extra help to enable students who may lack adequate preparation to complete an accelerated program of study that includes high-level academic and technical content.
· Keeping score - using student assessment and program evaluation data to improve continuously the school climate, organization, management, curricula and instruction to advance student learning and to recognize students who meet both curriculum and performance goals.