High Schools and Reform

Anne C. Lewis

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.

The high school diploma, which Greenspan believes took society a long way, has lost its value, according to Ready or Not, because it is no longer relevant to what it takes to succeed in college or in the workplace. While the report speaks of college and workplace separately throughout, the two are considered synonymous in terms of the skills high school graduates should have for success. Basically, the recommendations boil down to making all students undertake an honors curriculum. The report builds in some transitional strategies, but its message is quite clear about the level of English and math skills that a high school diploma should guarantee, backed up by benchmarks and postsecondary/workplace tasks that support its "must-have" competencies. (The report is available on the Web at www.achieve.org.)

No matter what the source of the push for reform, there is an inevitability about it all. That doesn't mean questions are out of order, however. I thought of several on a field trip to two sites that were once terribly unhealthy places for young people: formerly behemoth New York City high schools in the Bronx that have now been divided into three or more separate themed high schools. The field trip, sponsored by the American Youth Policy Forum, also included the Middle College and International High Schools at LaGuardia Community College.

To assuage the doubts of those unwilling to accept much change, these new high schools (aided by city policies that foster change and by Gates money) are enlivened, hopeful places for both teachers and students. They have unleashed a lot of talent and enthusiasm from educators wanting less bureaucratic and more personal environments.

Nonetheless, they require a lot of work, and, except for the LaGuardia campuses, they have not been around long enough to build capacity and meet the accountability expectations of the state and No Child Left Behind (NCLB) without sacrificing some of the spontaneity that created them. Even LaGuardia is challenged by one of the "unintended consequences" of NCLB. Because its high school campuses encourage students to take community college courses while they finish a high school diploma, the students may need an extra year to earn the diploma. This makes the schools vulnerable to being put on the "needs improvement" list because they are not graduating students "on time," even though their students are passing the Regents Examinations at high rates.

Even more unsettling is the premise that underlies both the Administration's plan for the Perkins reauthorization and the activity of the American Diploma Project. Both erroneously assume that there is a solid transitional system in place to move students through logical stages and into colleges and workplaces that are ready for them. The proposed policies closely resemble the academic demands of education systems in Europe, with their centralized curriculum and assessments, but the European countries also have highly refined transitions for young people and sophisticated workplaces available to them.

At bottom, basic high school reforms are only just beginning. Instead of having just enough room to react, as is the pattern with No Child Left Behind, educators and communities have an opportunity to respond to the trends. If they see these trends as necessary for the economy, then they need to promote them for that reason. If they want more discussion of what's best for young people, then they need to demand that discussion. What no one has is a lot of time.

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