Summit Fuels Push to Improve High Schools: Money, Initiatives Pledged during Two-Day Event

The nation's governors adjourned their two-day summit on high schools armed with an expanded arsenal of political and financial commitments to prepare all students for success in college and the workplace. But despite the enthusiastic launch of two major initiatives at the February 26-27, 2005 meeting here, observers cautioned that improving American high schools is a long, arduous task that will likely fail unless policymakers can convince large sectors of the public that change is actually needed. Furthermore, in one of the summit's highlights, six philanthropies, including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, announced a $42 million initiative to help states raise high school graduation and college-readiness rates. Thirteen states, which educate more than a third of U.S. students, also joined a new coalition committed to transforming high schools by raising standards, redesigning curricula, and tying high school tests and accountability systems to the knowledge and skills needed for life after high school. That view was echoed by many people during and after the event. They said that now may be the golden opportunity to tackle an institution long impervious to change. But educators also said that simply raising standards and demanding more of students would not produce the radical redesign of high schools called for by the summit's keynote speaker, Microsoft Corporation Chairman Bill Gates. And to address Mr. Gates' concerns, educators said, governors must be willing to tackle such tough issues as teacher preparation and working conditions, student engagement, school organization and structure, and support for students to accelerate their learning.