Skip Nav

Ask the Expert

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.

<< Back to Ask the Expert Home

Federal Role in High School Improvement

Question 2: What components should the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) reauthorization ideally include to support the improvement of high schools?

Originally signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965, The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) evolved into the current No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001. The principles of NCLB have helped to focus the nation’s attention on the achievement gap and the imperative of improving outcomes for all students, especially those most disadvantaged. Because the needs of high schools are not adequately addressed in the current version of ESEA, federal policy does not effectively support improving student outcomes in our nation’s high schools. The reauthorization of ESEA may provide the opportunity to take the critical first steps toward creating an appropriate and adequate federal role in supporting middle and high school reform across the country and preparing all students for college and career readiness.

The following proposals for the reauthorization of ESEA should be considered by those who are involved in the rewriting of ESEA so that it optimally supports secondary school students:

  1. Ensure meaningful accountability for high schools, including graduation rates.
    Graduation rates should be calculated uniformly, disaggregated by subgroup, and required to improve significantly over time as part of AYP for high schools.
  2.  Support state and local systems of high school improvement.
    A data-based new approach to high school improvement with differentiated systems designed and managed by states and districts will help ensure lasting improvement.
  3. Target new funding for turning around low-performing high schools.
    An appropriate funding level for turning around low-performing high schools is critical to supporting those schools and students most in need.
  4. Invest in data systems and the professional development to use them.
    Investments in state longitudinal data systems would help improve the collection, reporting, and use of education data, including training and support for educators in every state.
  5. Help students build literacy skills beyond the third grade.
    Support for programs designed to help districts and schools in every state develop literacy plans to assist educators in ensuring students have the literacy skills they need to handle rigorous coursework is important to ensure the success of every student.
  6. Support innovation and research in secondary schools.
    A Secondary School Innovation Fund, for example, could support partnerships in creating innovative approaches to secondary school education that improve student achievement and outcomes.
  7. Create support for turning around low-performing middle schools
    A new grant program to direct funding for turning around low-performing middle schools that feed into the nation’s worst high schools would ensure a higher rate of success for entering ninth graders.

Congress should remember the nation’s lowest-performing high schools during the process of reauthorization of ESEA next year. These low-performing schools represent a little more than 10 percent of the nation’s high schools, yet produce more than half of its dropouts. Currently, schools with some of the highest dropout rates are, for the most part, not included in school improvement efforts under ESEA because many are not eligible for Title I funds. Others do not participate in the Title I programs necessary to trigger participation in the accountability and improvement system and significant portions of the stimulus funds. While the U.S. Department of Education is working hard to prioritize these high schools, particularly through the newly proposed Title IA School Improvement regulations, any effort to reauthorize ESEA should also include ways to fix disparities between high- and low-performing schools, and ensure that severely low-performing schools do not remain under the radar of the federal school accountability and improvement system.

Resources:

Alliance for Excellent Education. (2008, September). Agenda for the Reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act. Washington, D.C.
Retrieved from http://www.all4ed.org/files/NCLBAgenda.pdf

Alliance For Excellent Education. (2009, September). Prioritizing the Nation’s Dropout Factories. Washington, D.C.
Retrieved from http://www.all4ed.org/files/PrioritizingDropoutFactories.pdf