States

High School Policy Gets Spotlight in Report to Southern Governors

By Alan Richard — October 01, 2004 3 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

A report from the Southern Governors Association recommends that the region’s leaders begin a new focus on improving high schools, especially smaller schools in rural areas.

“New Traditions: Options for Rural High School Excellence” is scheduled to be available from the Southern Governors’ Association.

The report, financed by a grant from the Seattle-based Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, urges governors to form statewide commissions on high school improvement, give more visibility to upgrading education at the secondary level, and emphasize such policy areas as dropout prevention and school leadership.

“Democratic governors, Republican governors are saying … we’ve got to really pay attention to our public schools in the South, because the vitality of our communities and the vitality of our economy really depends on it,” said Ferrel Guillory, a North Carolina journalist and scholar who wrote the report for the Washington-based SGA.

The SGA partnered with the Atlanta-based Southern Regional Education Board and the Rural School and Community Trust, based in Arlington, Va., to visit successful high school programs in Maine, Mississippi, New York, and North Carolina and collect information for the report.

The report was scheduled to be released Sept. 13 at the Southern governors’ annual meeting, in Richmond, Va. Governors and their advisers were expected to discuss the report and its implications.

Examples of Progress

Governors in several states are preparing major policy proposals on high school improvement for 2005. They are drawing from the report to develop “a statewide vision for high schools,” said Elizabeth G. Schneider, the executive director of the Washington-based SGA.

For example, Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco of Louisiana, a Democrat, is joining with her state’s K-12 and higher education boards to create a high school redesign commission that will begin work next month.

The initiative could lead to more innovation and higher numbers of high school graduates who leave school with strong skills, said Donna Nola- Ganey, Louisiana’s assistant state superintendent for school and community support.

A Guide for Governors

A report on rural high school improvement commissioned by the Southern Governors Association offers governors what it terms a “short, yet powerfully focused list of recommendations.”

  • Make reducing the dropout rate an urgent priority.
  • Invest in leadership preparation for principals.
  • Upgrade teacher professionalism.
  • Broaden the vision of assessment to include alternative methods.
  • Establish a state-level catalyst for change, such as reform commission.

SOURCE: Southern Governors Association

In compiling the report, visitors from nine SGA member states saw ideas they hope can be translated into promising practices in their own states. After the visits, representatives from many of the association’s 16 member states and two U.S. territories met to discuss what they saw.

At rural Swain County High School in Bryson City, N.C., visitors found a school where students use technology to study and present information about their community’s history. A career-oriented class on drafting was combined with a geometry class to help students see the links between the subjects, Mr. Guillory said.

In Mississippi, visitors found a principal at Shaw High School in the Delta region who took the time to help each student set goals for college or work. The principal’s effort is credited with raising test scores and graduation rates, said Lee Stevens, the SGA’s legislative director for education, health, and human services.

Shaw High’s remote location didn’t prevent the school from hiring good teachers, as the school helps teachers earn their master’s degrees while working, Ms. Schneider said.

Visitors also examined the formation of small learning communities within large campuses at the Julia Richman Education Complex in New York City, and they visited Poland Regional High School in Poland, Maine.

Ms. Schneider said she hopes the effort will help state leaders improve high schools across the South, and inspire more interest and funding from the Gates Foundation.

“We are hoping that this will open the door for further experimentation and for their support of further projects in the South, particularly in rural areas,” she said.

Better rural high schools mean better futures for the region’s people, said Mr. Guillory. He directs the Southern politics, media, and public-life program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill journalism school and is a senior fellow for a Chapel Hill-based nonprofit research firm, MDC Inc.

“We know in the South that we’ve got to align our schools with the demands of the new economy,” he said. “We don’t have anybody to waste.”

Related Tags:

Events

This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Reading & Literacy Webinar
The Future of the Science of Reading
Join us for a discussion on the future of the Science of Reading and how to support every student’s path to literacy.
Content provided by HMH
Mathematics K-12 Essentials Forum Helping Students Succeed in Math
Student Well-Being Live Online Discussion A Seat at the Table: The Power of Emotion Regulation to Drive K-12 Academic Performance and Wellbeing
Wish you could handle emotions better? Learn practical strategies with researcher Marc Brackett and host Peter DeWitt.

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

States What's Behind a Legislative Push for Prayer and Bible Study in Public Schools
A Texas bill would allow schools to set aside time for students to pray and study the Bible or other religious texts.
6 min read
A Black middle or elementary student sharing her open bible with a female Asian student
E+
States What Happened to Oklahoma's Effort to Count Undocumented Students?
State leaders ended the possibility of a rule change that would have required proof of citizenship in school enrollment.
3 min read
State Superintendent Ryan Walters, right, listens during public comment at the Oklahoma State Board of Education meeting on Thursday, April 25, 2024 in Oklahoma City.
State Superintendent Ryan Walters, right, listens during public comment at the Oklahoma State Board of Education meeting on Thursday, April 25, 2024 in Oklahoma City.
Nick Oxford/AP Images for Human Rights Campaign
States What States Can Learn from Tennessee’s Fight Over Undocumented Students
Legislative action challenging undocumented students' right to a free, public education hit a snag in Tennessee.
3 min read
Rev. Eric Mayle, center, yells at lawmakers as a bill that would deny illegal immigrants access to education is passed in a House Education Committee hearing in Nashville, Tenn., March 26, 2025.
Rev. Eric Mayle, center, yells at lawmakers as a bill that would deny illegal immigrants access to education is passed in a House Education Committee hearing in Nashville, Tenn., March 26, 2025. The bill in question is now pending until the legislature returns to session in January 2026.
George Walker IV/AP
States Oklahoma Will Cut Funding to Districts That Don't Sign Trump's Anti-DEI Pledge
The state says it will withhold federal funds from districts that don't sign a Trump administration DEI pledge.
8 min read
Ryan Walters, Republican state superintendent candidate, speaks, June 28, 2022, in Oklahoma City.
Oklahoma State Superintendent Ryan Walters is pictured on June 28, 2022, in Oklahoma City when he was a candidate for the position he now holds. Walters this week told districts he would halt federal funding beginning Friday, April 25, if they don't certify they're not using diversity, equity, and inclusion programming in schools.
Sue Ogrocki/AP