Regions

From neighborhoods bordering Hawaii’s balmy beaches to New York’s Brooklyn Bridge and those on the southern shores of Lake Michigan to southern Louisiana, Talent Development High Schools stretch across the country. The organization divides the country into four regions, each with a regional director and a team of organizational and curriculum facilitators to work with the schools in their areas. Field managers also work in two areas with concentrations of Talent Development schools – Chicago and Guilford County, N.C.

West Region

The Western region includes schools in California, Hawaii and Louisiana, with a growing contingent of TDHS schools in California. With support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, two schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District – David Starr Jordan and East Valley – are phasing in the full model. Other California schools are on board as well. TDHS is working with a number of sites in Louisiana, including Zachary High School, Bogalusa High School and several in the New Orleans Recovery District.

Midwest Region

Fifteen schools throughout the Midwest use Talent Development High Schools’ technical assistance and curriculum materials in different implementation models. In Michigan, Arkansas, Nebraska and Illinois, schools are seeing success with Talent Development in curriculum-only schools and those that are using the model in all grades.

TDHS works with two programs in the Chicago Public Schools. At the district’s eight Achievement Academies, TDHS and the district created two-year secondary school programs for over-aged students who have not met the promotion criteria to enter high school. The Achievement Academies provide critical instruction and motivation so students can earn middle school diplomas while completing high school credits. These academies have helped many students make a successful transition to high school. In addition, TDHS is working to implement the full model at Wells High School in Chicago.

In Michigan, Benton Harbor High Schools has implemented the TDHS model for three years. This year, Benton Harbor was awarded a Small Learning Communities grant by the United States Department of Education for more than $800,000. The school hopes to use this money to continue to build its capacity to implement the TDHS program and support further student growth.

South Region

The Southeast has the most Talent Development schools -- in North Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, Maryland and the District of Columbia. Some schools are implementing Freshman Seminar only; some have full-blown ninth-grade academies; others are moving forward with academies for grades 10-12 to augment their initial ninth-grade work. Two North Carolina TDHS schools, Byrd and High Point Central, achieved “high growth” in the state accountability system in 2006.

Northeast Region

The Northeast region has schools in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York with three New York City schools among them. The region, which also includes Delaware and the New England States, holds the TDHS longevity award for Strawberry Mansion and Edison Fareira high schools in Philadelphia, which have been with the program more than six years.

Bridgeton (NJ) High School was among five programs recognized in 2007 for removing barriers to student success in “Rethinking High School,” a study by WestEd for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.