Preparing All Youth for Academic and Career Readiness: Implications for High School Policy and practice

This paper identifies the challenges in practice and policy for successful post-school outcomes and it offers recommendations on how states, local school districts, and individual high schools can prepare all youth, including youth with disabilities, with academic and career readiness skills. Based on two symposia and a yearlong research effort, this paper identifies five broad policy and practice areas: instruction, curriculum, and structure; assessment practices; graduation requirements; community and family connections; and data quality challenges.