Campaign Seeks Buy-In for High School Reforms

‘Stand Up’ aims to rouse public support.

Kicked off last week with a big plug on “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” a new campaign spearheaded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is aiming to drum up public action to address what its organizers see as a crisis in America’s public high schools.

The Stand Up campaign comes as high schools have emerged as a focus of public-policy discussions. Many governors have recently outlined plans for improving secondary education, and President Bush—with little success so far—has advanced a high school agenda tied to the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

The initiative is highlighting the need to reduce the dropout rate. Key goals include building parental support for higher academic expectations of students and intensifying political pressure on the U.S. public education system to better prepare young people...