Education is challenged to update its model.

Lew Armistead

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(A photo from our 2008 Summer Leadership Institute.)

Unless education updates its model, results could be “frightening” for students and the United States, according to a new report, From No Child Left Behind to Every Child a Graduate, released in August by the Alliance for Excellent Education.

“In an era of rapid globalization, as technology and innovation increasingly impact almost every facet of life in communities throughout the world, it seems inconceivable that the American educational system still relies on a model that was designed to prepare students for life in the middle of the last century,” the report reads.

“And the consequences of allowing it to continue functioning this way are frightening, both for the students themselves and for the nation at large, which must be able to count on today’s students to become the productive workers, thinkers, and leaders of tomorrow.”

The report calls for public and political attention to provide better learning opportunities for potential dropouts and cites seven areas that require improvement.

“A few of the nation’s high schools are educating all of their students well,” the report contends. “Many more are doing a good job of providing a good education to some of their students but allowing others to fall through the cracks. And about two thousand—12 percent—of the country’s high schools are doing such a poor job of educating their students that researchers call them ‘dropout factories’; together, these high schools produce about half of the nation’s dropouts. They are found in almost every state in the nation, in urban, suburban, and rural communities.”

African American and Hispanic students are especially at risk, according to the report, which indicates that 78 percent of white students graduate “from high school on time with a regular diploma.” However, only 55 percent of African Americans and 58 percent of Hispanics achieve this.

There is reason to believe that necessary reforms can be made, according to the report.

“The good news is that much is already known about how to improve the secondary educational system, and more is being discovered every day. The nation can begin now to transform all of the nation’s middle and high schools into effective centers of teaching and learning. The process will be neither easy nor fast. But the research-based solutions and best practices that have been and are being developed and demonstrated in pockets of excellence around the nation prove that success is possible if the will to effect comprehensive and sustained reform is present.”

The report calls upon all levels of government and every segment of society to work actively on an effort to transform schools into ones that will prepare all students for the new world. The key will be “thoughtful, coordinated and systematic change.”

Implementing three principles will be essential for success:

• All students must be held to high expectations that will allow them to graduate ready for college and the modern workplace.
• The system must support and leverage an effective and individualized approach at the student and school levels so that both the path to the diploma and the efforts to turn around low-performing high schools are successful.
• Educators and policymakers must be provided the data and research necessary to make informed decisions to improve policy and practice.

Reform should be focused on the Alliance’s Framework for Action to Improve Secondary Schools, according to the report. In each of seven areas, the report outlines the issue and presents “systematic solutions” to that issue. The seven elements include:
  

Alignment and Rigor

High, common expectations should be demanded for every student by ensuring that standards, curriculum, assessments, and accountability systems are aligned with the skills and knowledge needed to succeed in college and the workplace and as a citizen.

Every youngster needs to have an engaging curriculum that is appropriately aligned, but there first must be agreement on what that is.

Accountability

Valid high school accountability systems must be designed to measure student and system performance; foster good practice and mitigate bad practice; and identify and direct resources and reforms to improve teaching, learning and outcomes for all students.

Student Supports and Options

Every student must have access to an engaging, rigorous, options-based course of study and the supports and interventions necessary for success.
Too frequently schools that are not preparing all students have a “one-size fits all” approach that does not consider the individual learning styles of students.

Highly Effective Educators

Every classroom and school must be led by an effective teacher and principal.

The key to effective learning is the interaction between students and their educators. Yet, there are numerous factors that inhibit the performance of teachers and principals, including high turnover, insufficient and ineffective professional development, few opportunities for career growth, compensation that is based on experience rather than effectiveness, isolation from colleagues that prevents collaboration, lack of achievement data, and the assignment of teachers to classes outside of their expertise, among others.

The report calls for teacher preparation programs, including alternative routes to certification, to equip educators to use data to guide instruction, employ culturally relevant teaching methods, embed adolescent literacy strategies into various content areas, and learn strategies to teach in low-performing urban and rural schools. There is also a need to recruit and train teachers for high need subjects.

District and school leaders must provide teachers a supportive working environment, which contains these seven elements:

• the ability to gather and use data effectively,
• the time necessary to collaborate with their peers and tailor instruction to the needs of each student,
• ongoing professional development,
• the resources to train content area teachers in adolescent literacy strategies
• access to community partners in order to address the social and health needs of students and their families,
• opportunities for career advancement, and
• rewards for effective teaching.

Supportive Communities

Community-based services and opportunities must be leveraged to provide every student with the academic and nonacademic supports necessary for academic success.

College Access

Every high school student must be guaranteed the academic, financial and other tools necessary for access to and success in postsecondary education.

Investment

Financial and human resources must be driven to where they are needed most by ensuring that those resources are allocated equitably and adequately and used efficiently and effectively.

Reaching the desired level of improvements will require a re-examination of some of the traditional practices in the educational system. The report recommends:

• Current uses of existing resources will need to be reevaluated and sometimes repurposed so that resources are targeted to specific needs with evidence-based approaches.
• The shortcomings of current federal policy must be acknowledged, and a new collaboration must build on the respective strengths of federal, state and local authority.
• Competing demands must be evaluated and the biggest problems targeted first.

“The response must be serious,” the report cautions. “Rhetoric must be followed with real action. Policy changes must be followed by funding to effectively implement those changes on the ground.”

The full report can be accessed electronically at http://www.all4ed.org/publicationmaterial/reports/ECAG. Print copies may be ordered at http://www.all4ed.org/publicationmaterial/order_form. Single copies are free; additional copies cost $1 per copy.

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