State and local elected officials must act now to bring the American high school into the 21st century. All states must share the common goal of preparing all students for work, college, and citizenship. In order to be successful, schools must be made more flexible, supportive, and effective in helping low-performing students catch up with their peers, while also expanding the opportunities for students to take college-level classes and earn college credit while attending high school.

Helping Low-performing Students Meet High Standards

During the last decade, many states have established high school “exit exams” and strengthened graduation requirements to address concerns that public high school graduates lack the skills they need to succeed in college and the workplace. But as these requirements have begun to come online in recent years, many students are not prepared to meet them, confronting state leaders with a difficult choice between lowering standards or denying diplomas to large numbers of disproportionately disadvantaged students. As a result, a number of states have postponed exit exams and other graduation requirements.

Promising efforts in a few states, however, demonstrate that states can meet the goals of exit exams and other tougher graduation requirements without lowering standards by providing extra support and help for struggling students.

It is time for a new approach to high school–one that both challenges our students more and gives them new opportunities to engage in meaningful, lifelong learning.

– Former Gov. Mark Warner, Virginia

In 2003, then-Virginia Gov. Mark Warner launched Project Graduation to address widespread concerns that the state’s students were not ready to face significantly tougher graduation requirements.

Massachusetts’ exit exam requirement for graduation is one of the most rigorous and controversial in the country. But the state is also devoting significant resources to improving performance on this exam. Students first take the test in 10th grade. Those who fail to pass receive ample retake opportunities, as well as access to summer school, after- and before-school assistance, and private tutoring programs offered by schools, school districts, and private organizations to help them acquire the skills they need to pass. In addition, the requirement is motivating not only the students to work harder in school, but also schools and districts to improve math and English curriculum and instruction.

Without a doubt, helping struggling students meet tougher graduation standards requires greater funding and effort from policymakers, educators, and the students themselves than would simply postponing requirements. But beyond the short term, ensuring that students who have been left behind get the extra opportunities they need to develop key skills is far more beneficial than allowing them to graduate without them.

Expanding Opportunities for Learning

Another cause for concern to parents and teachers is senioritis — the mysterious lack of academic interest and effort that strikes many high school seniors once they are admitted to college or have collected the courses required to graduate. But the often under-utilized senior year also presents an opportunity for innovative policymaking to help high school seniors get a jumpstart on and pay for college or career training while keeping them engaged in school.

“Dual credit” or “dual enrollment” programs allow high school seniors who have completed most of their graduation requirements to enroll in community college courses for both high school and college credit. The first state dual enrollment program, Minnesota’s Postsecondary Enrollment Options, requires schools to provide dual enrollment opportunities for students at no tuition. In 2004, more than 17,000 students took college courses through the program. Most students in dual enrollment programs attend community colleges, but Washington State’s Running Start program also allows juniors and seniors to experience four-year colleges. Students in Running Start are not charged tuition, but must meet rigorous academic requirements and pass a college’s entrance exam for all students.

Because students can finish high school with (in some programs) up to two years of college under their belts (in some programs), dual enrollment saves parents and students college tuition and also allows students to enter college with a realistic perception of what is expected of them. However, the benefits of dual enrollment are not limited to college-bound students. Community colleges offer a wide variety of technical and career-oriented classes that can allow non-college bound students to finish high school with a technical or industrial certification and the skills they need to find a good job. Restructuring high school curricula to allow most students to take advantage of dual enrollment also provides extra time for students who need additional help to master high school requirements prior to graduation.

Dual enrollment is a cost-effective way for smaller schools to offer students opportunities to take specialized classes as well as meet the need for qualified teachers in shortage areas like advanced math and science. Dual enrollment can also provide an additional and reliable revenue stream for community colleges and other post-secondary institutions in tight fiscal times.

Setting up a dual enrollment program involves a series of policy decisions: setting student eligibility requirements, determining whether or not to charge students a share of tuition, requiring districts to offer dual enrollment or simply allowing them to make it available as an option, and determining how dual-enrolled students will affect district budgets. Virginia’s Commonwealth College Course Collaboration, first proposed by then-Governor Mark Warner in 2003, created a list of courses that college students may take, either through advanced placement courses in their own high schools or via dual enrollment and be assured of receiving credit at any of 62 public, private, and community colleges and universities in Virginia. Students can earn up to 13 college credits, which would save them an average of $5,000 in tuition.

Another innovative model is Governor Mike Easley’s Learn and Earn early college high schools, which is supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Learn and Earn schools provide students with an opportunity to graduate in five years with a high school diploma and either an associate’s degree or two years of college credit. There are 33 Learn and Earn schools currently in operation on university and community college campuses around the state and plans for another 42 to open by the fall of 2008.

In Ohio, Gov. Ted Strickland announced in his 2008 State of the State address the Seniors to Sophomores program, which will allow high school seniors who meet academic standards to take college courses in the University System of Ohio tuition free. Students who elect to take a full load of college courses in their senior year will be able to enter college as college sophomores. The program will begin in “early adopter” schools this fall with the hopes of expanding statewide the next school year.

Curing “senioritis” has a variety of policy benefits for schools, post-secondary institutions, and parents, but the biggest benefit is ensuring that students will have more than just a diploma at graduation.