ASHEVILLE, North Carolina — The Southern Regional Education Board convened more than 100 state leaders from across the nation here August 24-25 to develop more ways to improve high schools, graduation rates and career/technical education.
State legislators, educators and leaders from state departments of education heard speakers and panelists talk about ways that various school campuses, school districts and states have improved graduation rates and student achievement.
SREB President Dave Spence told the conference that all states must improve graduation rates. He cited SREB’s Challenge to Lead Goals for Education, which call for all states to work toward having all students graduate from high school. He urged states to establish annual targets for improved graduation rates and to support school progress toward meeting the targets. He also urged states to make high school graduation rates a more important part of their school accountability systems.
“With all the emphasis we’ve placed on achievement, we’ve kind of forgotten about the completion part,” he said. “This is a national problem.” Spence also called for all states to ensure that all students — whether they’re interested in pursuing a four-year college or career-oriented path — learn the same rigorous academic skills and complete challenging work that prepares them well for college and careers.
Some other highlights from the two-day conference:
-- SREB Senior Vice President Gene Bottoms, who directs SREB’s High Schools That Work school improvement program, interviewed two students from the Asheville area who had seriously considered dropping out of high school before they found more meaningful educational settings. Chris Mills and Andrew Gibbs, both high school seniors in Buncombe County, told the audience that they had not seen the connection between courses in their former high schools and their career interests. They found more relevant educational experiences in high-quality area career centers and an alternative school, respectively. “There are a lot of students who don’t find a niche in high schools and middle schools,” Bottoms told the audience after interviewing the students. “How do we help all students find a place?”
-- States need to consider ways to prevent school accountability systems from endorsing low graduation rates in high schools, said Leslie Jacobs, vice chair of the Louisiana State Board of Education. She spoke of her state’s plans to reward schools not only for improved test scores, but also for graduating more students — and to sanction schools for each student who does not complete high school. “Does your accountability system reward or penalize a school” for “keeping low-performing students [in school]?” she asked.
-- Leaders described recent state policy changes that are designed to improve graduation rates. Jennifer Rippner, education policy adviser to Georgia Governor and SREB Chair Sonny Perdue, spoke of her state’s installation of full-time “graduation counselors” in every high school this fall. She noted that the counselors in larger schools will need to work with entire school staffs to prevent students from quitting school and falling behind academically. State officials from South Carolina and Florida described their states’ extensive new laws requiring students to choose career pathways, designed to lead them toward better career and college opportunities and reduce dropout rates. “[We have] got to stop the dropout problem,” said Bob Couch, the state director of career/technical education in South Carolina. “It is costing our state billions of dollars.” A Kentucky official described her state’s efforts toward a 100 percent graduation rate by 2014.
-- Three principals shared strategies for improving graduation rates at the school level. Don Hassler of Lebanon High School in Tennessee said his school has added more useful math courses, worked more closely with at-risk students and developed a close relationship with a high-quality technical school to raise achievement and graduation rates. Joyce Phillips of Corbin High School in Kentucky said her rural school graduates nearly all of its students by connecting all students to education and career goals after high school, requiring more rigor for classes and for graduation, and by helping students run on-campus businesses such as an on-campus movie theater that serves the community. Vincent Murray of Grady High School in Atlanta, Georgia, said his urban school has raised achievement by providing more Advanced Placement classes for all students, reducing ninth-grade class sizes, requiring all students to take advanced mathematics and providing extra help for students to be successful in challenging classes.
-- A panel led by June Atkinson, the North Carolina state schools superintendent, discussed technical schools and career academies, which are full-time school settings for career-oriented students. Patrick Savini, the superintendent of the Sussex County Vo-Tech School District in Delaware, spoke of his system’s transition from a part-time school for students into a full-time campus. The school now offers more advanced academic courses alongside career/technical courses and has a 95 percent graduation rate, he said.
-- North Carolina researcher Robert J. Ivry showed how career academies within high schools showed evidence of greater interpersonal relationships between students and teachers, greater success for high-risk students, and higher earnings after graduation for those who had finished career academies. He noted that the quality of the programs matters more than the structure of the learning environment.
-- John Davidson, an Arkansas state career/technical education official, described his state’s system of career-oriented “college centers” that draw high school students to community college campuses for a portion of their high school studies. The college centers allow the state to provide specialized training that may be unavailable at small-town high schools, and the centers have higher graduation rates and encourage more college attendance among career/technical students, he said.
-- State leaders met in teams and shared their own ideas for improving graduation rates, high schools and career/technical education in their own states. State Rep. Fran Miller of Georgia told the gathering that he hopes to work with legislative colleagues in his state to develop new ideas for improving graduation rates. “If we do this well in my state, I honestly believe this could be the most important thing I’ve done [in office],” he said.
SREB is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization based in Atlanta, Georgia, that works with 16 member states to improve education. SREB’s nonprofit High Schools That Work is the nation’s largest school improvement network, assisting some 1,000 schools in 32 states with improvement strategies. For more information, visit www.sreb.org.
