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Governor Bob Wise

Photograph of Governor Bob Wise
Governor Bob Wise
President, Alliance for Excellent Education

Governor Bob Wise, author of the book, Raising the Grade: How High School Reform Can Save Our Youth and Our Nation, became president of the Alliance for Excellent Education in February 2005. Under his leadership, the Alliance has continued to build its reputation as a respected authority on high school policy and and to advocate for reform in America's secondary education system, working to ensure that all students graduate from high school prepared for success. He has advised the U.S. Department of Education and frequently testifies before the U.S. Congress. As Governor of West Virginia from 2001-2005, he signed legislation to fund the PROMISE Scholarship, which has helped thousands of West Virginia students remain in the Mountain State for college. During his administration, West Virginia saw a significant increase in the number of students completing high school and entering college.

Governor Wise serves on the Public Education Network's board of directors; the board of trustees of America's Promise; and is an advisory committee member for a number of organizations, among them the Campaign for Educational Equity, Editorial Projects in Education, and the National High School Center, which is funded by the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education and the Office of Special Education Programs and housed at the American Institutes for Research. He also serves on the board of directors of C-Change, which works to eliminate cancer as a major public health risk at the earliest possible time.

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Federal Role in High School Improvement

The problems in United States high schools have become a top priority for the national education policy agenda, as the nation has realized that its schools are not adequately preparing its students, particularly poor and minority students, for college and careers in the twenty-first century. There is also growing awareness of the long-term social and economic implications of an inadequate education for individuals, the communities in which they live, and the nation as a whole. As these consequences have become more apparent and as research, innovation, and emerging best practice have shed light on more effective approaches to high school improvement, the national discourse on high schools has begun to shift from one about the crisis to one about solutions, with growing consensus that there is a stronger federal role to be played in supporting those solutions at the state and local levels.

Read the Questions to Date on the Federal Role in High School Improvement:

Additional Resources on the Federal Role in High School Improvement:

  1. Alliance For Excellent Education Web site
  2. Improving Academic Preparation for College: What We Know and How State and Federal Policy Can Help
  3. Reinventing the Federal Role in Education: Supporting the Goal of College and Career Readiness for All Students
  4. Rethinking the Federal Role In Improving High School Performance
    U.S. Department of Education Fact Sheet on School Improvement Grants (SIG)
  5. U.S. Department of Education Fact Sheet on Race To The Top
  6. U.S. Secretary of Education Announces National Competition to Invest in Innovation