Nation’s Report Card Highlights Need for High School Reform, Says State School Boards Association

Alexandria, VA – The results of the latest 12th-grade reading and math scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress—the nation’s report card—indicate the pressing need for effective education reforms to American high schools. “Policymakers have made great strides over the past decade in making educational improvements to elementary and middle schools. But the results of the latest NAEP scores highlight the urgency for us to turn our attention to putting in place the policies and reforms necessary for high school students to achieve at high academic levels and compete in the global marketplace,” said Brenda Welburn, NASBE Executive Director.

“The fact that more students are taking more and harder classes -- and doing better in them as compared to the predecessors -- are an encouraging base upon which to build. Still, the overall results are disappointing and we, as a nation, must do better. For their part, State Board of Education members will redouble their efforts to promote and implement policies to improve high school students’ academic achievement and to narrow the achievement gaps among white and minority students that continue to persist. If any good can come of this most recent data, it will be to draw greater attention to the issues and super federal lawmakers to incorporate meaningful high school education reforms into the No Child Left Behind Act and to reauthorize the law this year,” said Welburn.

According to NAEP, 12th graders scored the lowest on reading since 1992 and less than a quarter of high school seniors proved to be at or above the “proficient” level in mathematics. The percentage of 12th graders at or above the “basic” level in reading declined from 80% to 73% since 1992. In math, only 23% scored at or above “proficient.” The only bright note in the report was an indication that more high school students are taking harder courses and getting slightly better grades in them (one third of a letter grade higher than in 1990).

NASBE has been and continues to be a national leader in promoting reforms at the high school level. Currently, the organization’s high school redesign initiative provides state boards of education with vital information about the latest high school reform research and best practices as part of the National Governors Association’s Honor States project funded by the Gates Foundation.

Previously, NASBE has conducted year-long reviews of high school policies that have resulted in recommendations to rethink the traditional concept and structure of the American high school in order to help students meet escalating demands for higher education and the workforce, and issued a call for states to exercise more oversight over high school athletics to ensure they do not undermine the academic reforms being undertaken by states. The reports, Most Likely to Succeed: Policymaking in Support of a Restructured High School and Athletics and Achievement: The Report of the NASBE Commission on High School Athletics in an Era of Reform, respectively, are available on NASBE’s website.

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NASBE, www.nasbe.org, represents America’s state and territorial boards of education. Our principal objectives are to strengthen state leadership in education policymaking; advocate equality of access to educational opportunity; promote excellence in the education of all students; and assure responsible lay governance of education.

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