NASSP's High School Reform Recommendations

Many reports have been issued in the past few years that reveal deep problems with the achievement levels of U.S. high school students as compared to international students. There is also a significant achievement gap along race and income lines as well as low graduation and college attendance rates for low-income students and minorities. More often than not, these low rates can be traced back to the large numbers of students entering high schools reading below grade level. The vast majority of high schools, to a great degree, have a climate of anonymity where little focus is placed on identifying the personal learning needs of individual students and using such information to foster improved teaching and learning.

Improving education for all students is paramount to strengthening our democracy and preparing our nation to compete in today's global marketplace. To that end, it is quite necessary for the federal government to play an ongoing active and supportive role in improving the nation's schools by encouraging reform and providing adequate resources to supplement improvement efforts at the state and local levels.

The role of the federal government in education should be one of partnership with the states and local school districts to improve the overall quality of nation's schools and to ensure equal opportunity for all students. To date, federal resources in support of school improvement have mainly been targeted at the elementary level and to some extent the middle level. And while a great deal more can be done to support real improvement at the middle level, the next and long-overdue stage in the evolution of school reform must be the improvement of the nation's high schools.