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High Schools and Reform

IN CASE you haven't noticed, the traditional American public high school is on the chopping block. During the past two decades, school reformers have sighed when speaking of change in secondary schools, saying they were the hardest -- and would be the last -- nutshell they would seek to crack in making significant improvements in the education of young people. Efforts in secondary schools would need to be incremental, most experts thought. Instead, a sudden burst of talk, money, and policy proposals has made it obvious that those in high schools are going to have to act -- and soon. In a recent speech to a Chamber of Commerce audience, even the dour, academic Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan provided historical and economic justifications for moving high schools from their comprehensive focus toward an exclusive emphasis on what now passes for an honors program. The expansion of high schools with a broad curriculum in the first half of the 20th century, Greenspan said, served the needs of the economy well. A high school diploma represented the training needed to be successful in most sectors of the American economy. Thus the economic returns of a diploma rose, as did high school completion rates. Today, the country is in a new era, when higher skills are an international commodity, and, instead of defending protectionism, Greenspan argued, "we need to discover the means to enhance the skills of our work force," especially those workers lower on the skill ladder. That effort needs to begin in kindergarten, he added. But it is critical for high schools and community colleges. Similar economic arguments for transforming high schools were used by Susan Sclafani, long-time advisor to U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige and now assistant secretary for vocational and adult education. In describing the proposals for reauthorization of the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act, she made it obvious that the department wants to use this program to push an agenda for high school reform. Barely mentioning career or technology goals in remarks to a forum in Washington, D.C., she outlined an accountability-based, academic-focused direction under a reauthorized Perkins Act. High school transformation is taking place, however, without federal intrusion. A nascent "small school movement" has turned into a national cause because of the infusion of billions of dollars by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Foundation funds are stimulating the break-up of large high schools into smaller ones as well as the creation of new, smaller learning environments. More than that, money from the Gates Foundation is putting small high schools on the agendas of governors and state legislators, national organizations, and evaluators. Not even past reform efforts by such stalwart foundation heavyweights as Ford and the Carnegie Corporation matched the depth and focus of what the Gates Foundation is accomplishing. While the Gates approach tends to see personal support as key to student success, Ready or Not: Creating a High School Diploma That Counts, a report released in February by the American Diploma Project, defines student success exclusively in terms of meeting high academic standards. Not only that, under its proposals, all states would be working from the same set of standards. This call for states to rework their standards and assessments into more consistent national benchmarks comes from an interesting combination of national groups. The sponsors of the American Diploma Project are the Education Trust, a policy and advocacy group focused on the needs of poor kids; the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, headed by Chester Finn, who supports more competition for public education; and Achieve, Inc., a national group focused on helping states with standards-based accountability efforts. …