Policy interest in the challenge of improving urban high schools has grown recently, as high-profile business leaders and politicians have called the preparedness of graduates for college work into question. The National Governor's Association and President Bush have cited high school reform as a top education priority. Across the nation, foundations, large and small, are attempting to finance a revolution to push the archaic world of secondary education into the 21st century. Still, the majority of urban high school students - those served in large comprehensive high schools - have yet to benefit from their new high profile among politicians and reform funders. The purpose of this report is to lay out an action agenda for large comprehensive high schools and to clarify what needs to happen at the school, district and state levels in order for sustainable change to take effect. This report highlights the lessons that comprehensive high schools must heed in enacting improvement efforts and provides promising examples of urban high schools that are making it possible for all students to achieve at high levels. The report explores three interrelated pieces of the reform puzzle, each of which is an essential component of whole school improvement. They are:

• Personalizing the learning environment;
• Building teacher capacity, and
• Setting and meeting high expectations for all students.

This report builds on the December 2003 Rennie Center report, Head of the Class, which detailed the characteristics of higher performing urban high schools in Massachusetts. Scaling Up continues the work of Head of the Class by addressing the question of how we can take the lessons of urban high schools to scale. Throughout the report, recommendations are provided for leaders at the school, district and state levels. Some report recommendations include:

• Provide ongoing opportunities for teachers to collaborate and engage in high quality, content-based professional development at the school level.
• Create a sense of urgency at the district level around improvement based on student data.
• Commit resources to urban high school improvement at the state level.

Policy interest in the challenge of improving urban high schools has grown recently, as high-profile business leaders and politicians have called the preparedness of graduates for college work into question. The National Governor's Association and President Bush have cited high school reform as a top education priority. Across the nation, foundations, large and small, are attempting to finance a revolution to push the archaic world of secondary education into the 21st century. Still, the majority of urban high school students - those served in large comprehensive high schools - have yet to benefit from their new high profile among politicians and reform funders. The purpose of this report is to lay out an action agenda for large comprehensive high schools and to clarify what needs to happen at the school, district and state levels in order for sustainable change to take effect. This report highlights the lessons that comprehensive high schools must heed in enacting improvement efforts and provides promising examples of urban high schools that are making it possible for all students to achieve at high levels. The report explores three interrelated pieces of the reform puzzle, each of which is an essential component of whole school improvement. They are:

• Personalizing the learning environment;
• Building teacher capacity, and
• Setting and meeting high expectations for all students.

This report builds on the December 2003 Rennie Center report, Head of the Class, which detailed the characteristics of higher performing urban high schools in Massachusetts. Scaling Up continues the work of Head of the Class by addressing the question of how we can take the lessons of urban high schools to scale. Throughout the report, recommendations are provided for leaders at the school, district and state levels. Some report recommendations include:

• Provide ongoing opportunities for teachers to collaborate and engage in high quality, content-based professional development at the school level.
• Create a sense of urgency at the district level around improvement based on student data.
• Commit resources to urban high school improvement at the state level.

What do adults need in order to succeed in postsecondary education and training? That is the question facing Ohio, where 45% of adults ages 25-54 (2.1 million) have no postsecondary education, and employers have a growing demand for a skilled workforce. The Ohio General Assembly sought to address this pressing issue by passing legislation instructing the Ohio Board of Regents (OBR) and the Ohio Department of Education (ODE) to develop a statewide system of "stackable" certificates capable of engaging lowskilled adults in college.

The state interagency team charged with designing stackable certificates asked Columbus State Community College (CSCC) to facilitate the design process. CSCC engaged Community Research Partners (CRP), a nonprofit research and workforce policy center, to conduct national benchmarking in search of other stackable certificate type programming. Columbus State contributed to the research by conducting stakeholder focus groups. This information is contained in another report.

Quantum mechanics is difficult to learn because it is counterintuitive, hard to visualize, mathematically challenging, and abstract. The Physics Education Technology (PhET) Project, known for its interactive computer simulations for teaching and learning physics, now includes 18 simulations on quantum mechanics designed to improve learning of this difficult subject. Our simulations include several key features to help students build mental models and intuitions about quantum mechanics: visual representations of abstract concepts and microscopic processes that cannot be directly observed, interactive environments that directly couple students' actions to animations, connections to everyday life, and calculations so students can focus on the concepts rather than the math. Like all PhET simulations, these are developed using the results of education research and feedback from educators, and are tested in student interviews and classroom studies. This article provides an overview of the PhET quantum simulations and their development. We also describe research demonstrating their effectiveness and share some insights about student thinking that we have gained from our research on quantum simulations.

Quantum mechanics is difficult to learn because it is counterintuitive, hard to visualize, mathematically challenging, and abstract. The Physics Education Technology (PhET) Project, known for its interactive computer simulations for teaching and learning physics, now includes 18 simulations on quantum mechanics designed to improve learning of this difficult subject. Our simulations include several key features to help students build mental models and intuitions about quantum mechanics: visual representations of abstract concepts and microscopic processes that cannot be directly observed, interactive environments that directly couple students' actions to animations, connections to everyday life, and calculations so students can focus on the concepts rather than the math. Like all PhET simulations, these are developed using the results of education research and feedback from educators, and are tested in student interviews and classroom studies. This article provides an overview of the PhET quantum simulations and their development. We also describe research demonstrating their effectiveness and share some insights about student thinking that we have gained from our research on quantum simulations.

Quantum mechanics is difficult to learn because it is counterintuitive, hard to visualize, mathematically challenging, and abstract. The Physics Education Technology (PhET) Project, known for its interactive computer simulations for teaching and learning physics, now includes 18 simulations on quantum mechanics designed to improve learning of this difficult subject. Our simulations include several key features to help students build mental models and intuitions about quantum mechanics: visual representations of abstract concepts and microscopic processes that cannot be directly observed, interactive environments that directly couple students' actions to animations, connections to everyday life, and calculations so students can focus on the concepts rather than the math. Like all PhET simulations, these are developed using the results of education research and feedback from educators, and are tested in student interviews and classroom studies. This article provides an overview of the PhET quantum simulations and their development. We also describe research demonstrating their effectiveness and share some insights about student thinking that we have gained from our research on quantum simulations.