24 February 2005

The push for remaking the American high schools became one step closer to reality as the nation’s governors released their report on Tuesday, February 22, 2005 as they prepared for the Education Summit and National Governor’s Association meeting beginning later that week.

The Action Agenda for Improving America’s High Schools asks for nothing less than a fundamental redesign of the American high school, including an alignment with postsecondary institutions. States will be called on to provide a seamless governance structure, headed by a single board, for all education from early childhood through higher education.

The tenets of the reform being pushed by the Education Summit include: giving principals more authority while at the same time holding them more accountable for staff retention, truancy and student achievement; streamlining education governance to move the K-16 concept from rhetoric to reality; raising the value of the high school diploma which would include making college prep courses the default curriculum and improving testing to measure student achievement; redesigning the high school program to better meet a variety of student needs, such as having early college high schools or schools that provide certification for work in some industries; and provide incentives to attract and retain teachers in curriculum areas of greatest need.

As with most other education reform moves in recent years, the Action Agenda for Improving America’s High Schools also calls for higher standards, more relevant data, improved accountability and better testing.

The full report is available at: www.michiganascd.org/resources.htm

President George W. Bush recently proposed a number of high school reforms, including an expansion of the provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act. The president has called for high school students to take annual, state-administered tests in math and reading in Grades 9, 10, and 11. "Testing at high school levels will help us become more competitive as the years go by," Bush said. "Testing in high schools will make sure that our children are employable for the jobs of the 21st century." In his 2006 education budget, the President is proposing 1.5 billion for his school initiative. 1.2 Billion will be used for high school intervention to help states hold high schools accountable for teaching all students and to provide for interventions for those students who are not learning at grade level. The new U.S. Education Secretary, Margaret Spellings, said that the high school initiative is designed to “restore the value of a high school diploma” by expanding programs.

In Michigan, two existing initiatives support various aspects of the National Governor’s Association’s high school redesign agenda. One is The Lt. Governor’s Commission on Higher Education & Economic Growth with reform recommendations for both high school and post secondary education. The Commission recommends that high schools set high expectations through rigorous standards and curriculum; have a new assessment test to replace the high school MEAP (this has been already accomplished by the Michigan legislature); create a culture of entrepreneurship by integrating entrepreneurial skills and education into Michigan’s K-12 standards; implement new strategies for high school success; equip educators and administrators to support the high expectations path; and expand the opportunities for “early college” achievement by expanding opportunities for dual enrollment and for taking college courses.

The report also calls for community compacts for educational attainment where local government leaders business, labor, and education leaders come together to organize pacts to increase local post secondary participation rates by 5 percent each year for the next ten years and the development of a lifelong education tracking system at the state level (Michigan Department of Information Technology). Many of the other recommendations are aimed at post-secondary education.

The full report is available at: www.michiganascd.org/resources.htm

The second Michigan initiative is the establishment of the Michigan Department of Education’s High School Reform Team that is continuing with the development of a “white paper” on high school reform. Tentative recommendations were presented to the State Board of Education at their November 2004 meeting. At this meeting the reform team reported that research supports the “4 Rs”: Rigor in the high school experience; Relevance of high school academic study; Relationships necessary to foster academic success; and Rethinking of the structures and functions of high school as currently designed.

On rethinking, the Team recommends that Michigan integrate high school outcomes to college entrance requirements; embrace research that supports the transition to more flexible education models; and align standards and resources to accommodate best practices.

A full report is available at: www.michiganascd.org/resources.htm

The State Department of education has just posted a position for a High School Redesign Coordinator. www.state.mi.us/mdcs/asp/vacancyweb/VacancyInq2.asp?ID=12336

It should be noted that the work of the High School Reform Team is a work-in-progress and that they will coordinate their work with the recommendations of The Lt. Governor’s Commission on Higher Education & Economic Growth.

With calls for high school redesign coming from the White House, the nation’s governors, the Michigan Governor’s office, the State Board of Education, and the State Department of Education, it is almost a certainty that high school reform, in some form, will occur and that many of the suggested recommendations in these reports will become a reality in the near future.