Task Force Calls for Revamping Calif. High Schools

By Lonnie Harp

A California task force has called for an overhaul of the state's high schools aimed at upgrading courses and strengthening the connection between school and work.

The structure of high-school education should be changed, the panel urged, to give students a broad exposure to core subjects in the 9th and 10th grades and a more focused final two years that would emphasize preparation either for jobs or college.

Such radical changes are necessary for high schools to meet student needs and economic demands, the group contended. "We need to rethink many of our traditional high-school approaches--building upon what works and discarding what does not,'' according to a summary of the group's report, "Second to None: A Vision of the...