Civil Rights Groups Press for NCLB to Focus on High Schools

Washington

Nine major civil rights organizations today called on Congress to make reforming America’s high schools and improving graduation rates for minority students the most urgent priority as it moves forward on renewing the No Child Left Behind Act.

Driven by escalating concerns that African-American, Latino, American Indian, and some Asian-American students make up the majority of the nation’s dropouts every year, the coalition unveiled its “Campaign for High School Equity,” a document that spells out clear policies it believes Congress should pursue to reverse that trend. The group partnered with the Alliance for Excellent Education , a Washington-based advocacy group that pushes for high school improvements, to devise the recommendations.

More than 1.2 million students did not graduate with their high school class in the 2006-07 school year, and the majority of them were students of color,...