The document describes the Alliance High School model developed by EdisonLearning to help improve outcomes for students, especially those in low-performing schools. The model provides a comprehensive approach focusing on establishing a culture of achievement and engagement for students through programs like College NEXT and small learning communities. It also emphasizes providing rigorous academic content and customized instruction to meet student needs, supported by professional development for teachers and principals. The goal is to increase student achievement, graduation rates, and preparedness for college and careers.

1. Alliance™ High School
Many students enter high school unprepared academically
to perform at grade level. Statistics show that two out of
three students either drop out of high school or graduate
without the skills they need to succeed in college or at work.*
These statistics can be more staggering in our nation’s
poorest or lowest-performing communities.
EdisonLearning developed Alliance High School to
help change these statistics. The model is a proven
solution designed to increase achievement in all high
school students, specifically targeting the needs of low-performing
schools.
With Alliance High School, EdisonLearning partners with
schools, giving them the tools, resources and support
to create a high school environment of respect; where
students are engaged in their own learning, there is
order and safety, academic expectations exist with a
curriculum to support it and college is believed to be an
achievable goal for any student who wants it.
With Alliance High School, EdisonLearning works with
you to achieve these ultimate goals: increased student
achievement, improved graduation rates and students
prepared to meet the challenges of college and the 21st
century workplace.
A comprehensive approach
to turn-around in high schools
Alliance High School provides a comprehensive approach
to high school turn-around. Built on EdisonLearning’s Four
Cornerstones of highly effective schools: Top Talent; A
Culture of Achievement and Engagement; Demanding
Content and Customized Instruction; and Achievement-
Driven Management, the model utilizes the proven
methods, best practices and research-based tools from
EdisonLearning’s 20 years of success in increasing student
achievement in schools across the United States.
A dedicated on-site team, the Alliance Achievement team,
becomes your partner in planning and implementing the
Alliance High School model. The team comes with special
expertise in high school curriculum, instruction and
leadership, helping to create the capacity at your school
for teachers and leaders to continually implement the
principles of Alliance High School into daily school life.
Making the change to a culture
of achievement and engagement
A culture with high expectations where all students
believe they can succeed is a vital component of all great
schools. In high school, a school’s culture is even more
critical to how students interact, learn and ultimately
succeed. Do students feel safe? Do they feel connected to
their own learning? Do they feel there are opportunities
for advanced coursework? Do they believe that if they
want to attend college they can?
The Alliance High School model addresses these questions,
establishing a culture that builds strong teacher and
student relationships, engages students in their own
learning and gives them both the encouragement and
resources to believe they can succeed. EdisonLearning
has developed programs specifically for high schools
that helps create this culture.
The Alliance Achievement team works with you to create
your school’s Learning Environment Plan, a framework to
how your school will achieve its vision. The plan covers
a wide range of topics, including:
• Foundational principles for effective high school design
• Student advocacy and efficacy programs
• Character and Ethics education
• School and Classroom Management
• Physical Learning Environment
• Emergency Procedure and Safety Plan
This plan serves as the basis on how your school will
operate to achieve its goals.
Another aspect of creating a culture of achievement is
setting up a learning structure that most engages students
in their own learning. In the Alliance High School model,
this is achieved through small learning communities. Small
learning communities provide students and teachers the
means to form closer working relationships that fully

2. engage students in their own learning, goal-setting and an
achievement plan for graduation. Students learn to believe that
someone values their work, is intimately involved with their
learning and cares about their success.
The Alliance Achievement team assists you in setting up a small
learning community environment in your school, using the best
practices from EdisonLearning’s years of successful school design
built on the following principles:
• Organizing schools into houses with small teams of teachers
linked to groups of students
• Creating an environment where teachers get to know students as
individuals and be able to respond to their specific learning needs
• Building a supportive environment where teachers can collaborate
for more effective student learning
The design of these communities is flexible, based on the needs
and structure of your school.
One of the most difficult parts of a culture shift, particularly in
low-performing schools, is making students believe they can
aspire to high achievement. Many students in these schools
lack the belief that they have a chance to attend college. Schools
don’t have the resources to support a rigorous curriculum and a
robust guidance system. Students lack the encouragement from
parents who don’t understand the college preparation process.
College NEXT! is a program designed to change that mind set.
The program is comprehensive in that it addresses all aspects of
college preparation, including attitudinal shifts, social changes
and curriculum enhancements. With College NEXT!, guidance
counselors are provided with numerous resources to engage
both students and parents in the college planning process as
early as 9th grade, including the A cademic Guidance Tool, a
quarterly checklist to help school counselors monitor student’s
four year academic plan and the Master Schedule, a curriculum
plan, driven by student need, which includes rigor and AP course
access, preparing students for college.
The College NEXT! program focuses on
the following key areas:
• Academic Guidance
• Master Scheduling
• Learning Environment
• Parent support and training on “Getting
Students Into, then Through College”
Providing demanding content and customized instruction
In order for students to believe they can aspire to high achievement,
they need a rigorous curriculum to support it. The Alliance
Achievement team, with its high school curriculum specialists,
will work with your school to design a curriculum that fits the
students’ needs at all academic levels.
With the College NEXT! program, a curriculum is designed to
provide access to rigorous course, including AP courses.
In addition, special programs are infused in the daily curriculum
to help all students succeed. Reading and Writing Across the
Curriculum is an online program that shows all teachers (Math,
Social Studies, etc.) how to embed literacy and writing strategies
and skills into the content they teach. Students are continually
exposed to essential literacy skills and comprehension that they
need for success on high stakes tests and college entrance exams.
Reading and Writing Across the Curriculum
uses three strategies to ensure student success:
Note-taking Strategies: Students learn to more
easily review and understand what they are reading.
Vocabulary Strategies: Through the use of
definitions, illustrations, games and activities,
vocabulary development is enhanced.
Summarization: Students learn this important
skill, critical to success in college and the work
place where people are asked to understand,
interpret, and act on information they’re given.

3. The Alliance Achievement team takes every step to ensure your
curriculum meets the needs of all students. In preparing your
plan, gaps in the curriculum may be identifi ed. To ensure there
is content and courses to meet all students need, eCourses, self-paced
online courses, are offered as an optional component to
Alliance High School. eCourses may provide a fl exible option
to fi ll these gaps through summer school, after school or other
intervention programs. Or if a core group is excelling above all
students, eCourses can provide a way for these students to be
challenged and keep progressing in their learning.
Ensuring effective leadership and teaching with top talent
Strong leaders and teachers are crucial to an effective high school
environment. As part of Alliance High School, principals take part
in professional development based on EdisonLearning’s research-based
frameworks for effective principals. The frameworks
help principals understand what highly effective principals
do, refl ect on their practices and set goals and strategies for
personal development to grow their leadership skills over time.
Principals and leadership teams receive intensive coaching and
training including national conferences, local meetings and on-site
one-on-one and team sessions with Alliance Achievement
Team specialists in high school leadership.
A program for improving teacher quality – the single greatest
factor in driving student achievement gains – provides teachers
with intensive coaching and training in local and on-site training
to address specifi c professional development needs as identifi ed
using EdisonLearning’s research-based teacher frameworks.
Embracing achievement-driven management
EdisonLearning’s eValuate™ system is fully utilized in the model.
eValuate is an online formative assessment system that provides
monthly benchmark assessments aligned to individual state
standards, combined with powerful reports and analysis tools to
monitor student progress. The Alliance Achievement Team with
support from EdisonLearning’s Research and Assessment Center
of Excellence helps schools analyze the eValuate data, as well as
student achievement data from other sources, to drive decision
making and adjust instruction to improve learning outcomes.
At the high school level, assessments are designed to match the
method in which a state’s high school high stakes assessments
are designed and delivered (comprehensive vs. end-of-course).
Assessments are provided up to the year that the state’s assessment
is administered (9th, 10th or 11th grade).
Alliance High School is your comprehensive solution to meet the
challenges of under-performing high schools, preparing students
for the challenges of college, work and life in the 21st century.
Find Out More
For more information, email us at
information@edisonlearning.com,
call us at 1-877-I-CAN-LEARN (1-877-422-6532),
or visit www.edisonlearning.com/alliance.
Working together for student success™
* Source: Alliance for Excellent Education
eCourses:
 are self-paced courses taken online
 include a full catalog of modular, standards-based
subjects including both core academics
and electives
 give students the opportunity to be exposed to
content otherwise not available at the school
 prepare students for higher education where
online courses are increasingly being used