A flurry of recent reports show that America’s high schools are stagnating, and more educators are joining the drive for change. As part of his second term education agenda, President Bush is calling for extending the testing and accountability provisions of No Child Left Behind to older students.
But there is little consensus over the best ways to overhaul the system. And past reformers have had difficulty wading through the social, bureaucratic, and political challenges unique to secondary education.
Is high school reform overdue? What can be done to fix the nation’s high schools? What is standing in the way of change?