Through Gov. Warner's initiative, Redesigning the American High School, the National Governors Association (NGA) is addressing the urgent need to improve high schools. In addition to the 2005 National Education Summit on High Schools, Gov. Warner and NGA released a five-point state action agenda for high school redesign and a list of 10 Steps for getting started on this agenda. Governors now have a compilation of promising state and local practices to implement these 10 recommendations. Town hall meetings across the country and recommendations for common state data collection of high school graduation and dropout rates complete the initiative's major activities. The Redesigning the American High School initiative is generously supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Making the case for e-learning. The economic case for building a successful e-learning future hinges in part on the efficiency of e-learning and its role in shortening the amount of time it takes to get workers up to speed on new products and processes. Improvements in the quality of education and training are an equally important economic benefit of e-learning, which offers potentially universal access to best-in-class learning content, as well as a wide variety of content available anywhere in the world. E-learning also has promise as a tool for reducing the costs of workplace-related education and training.

NGA's Center reports "The State of E-Learning in the States" and "A Vision of E-Learning for America's Workforce" address how states are implementing ...

"United States economic growth in the 21st century will be driven by our nation's ability to innovate."
—Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano
NGA Chair, 2006-2007

The National Governors Association recently found that “America’s high schools are failing to prepare too many of our students for work and higher education.” Even though a diploma is seen as a minimum requirement for entry into the workforce, one third of all adolescents (and half of all African American and Latino students) do not complete high school at all. Many who do graduate are not prepared for the 21st-century economy. Various fundamental reforms are being considered to increase students’ academic success and economic potential.

"It is not just about size," Jim Shelton, the foundation's program director for education, told Rethinking Schools. "It is always about how you deliver quality instruction in a way that kids learn. But size is an enabler. It allows you to have an environment in which kids will know each other and the adults will know the kids."

Rethinking Our Classrooms is divided into seven main sections. Click on the section heading to jump directly to that section below. Links lead to the full text of selected articles.

But there's more at work than irony, coincidence, or political opportunism. Both positions spring from a conservative worldview that glorifies hyper-individualism and harbors a deep antipathy toward the social movements of the 1960s and 1970s. What makes it difficult to untangle this worldview is that, particularly on affirmative action and school vouchers, conservatives have masked their attacks with populist rhetoric and have consciously linked "individual rights" to "civil rights."

All students in the United States can and must graduate from high school, and they must leave with the skills necessary for college, work, and citizenship. To meet this goal, the foundation identifies and invests in organizations that are working to improve the U.S. education system.

The good news is we know how to fix our broken high schools. We must base them on a brand new set of 3Rs, identified by education experts as the key ingredients of an effective education:

• Rigor: all students need the chance to succeed at challenging classes, such as algebra, writing, and chemistry
  
  
  
• Relevance: courses and projects must spark student interest and relate clearly to their lives in today’s rapidly changing world
  
  
  
• Relationships: all students need adult mentors who know them, look out for them, and push them to achieve