Jane Norwood, State Board Vice-Chair, Testifies to Congress on High School Reform

Dr. Jane Norwood, Vice-chair of the North Carolina State Board of Education, testified before the full House Education Committee today on dropout prevention policies, strategies to improve high school graduation rates, and the current status of high school reforms. Norwood was a witness on behalf of the National Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE) in the latest of a series of congressional hearings on the No Child Left Behind Act.

“We recognize that the institution of the American high school must undergo sweeping improvements in order to prepare all students for today’s economy. Effective high school reforms must focus on the core issues of literacy, high school structure — including use of the school day and the school calendar — teacher quality, and dropout prevention,” Dr. Norwood told House Education Committee members.

North Carolina has taken great strides in focusing on these vital issues, moving toward greater accountability with more accurate data, including the use of a new four-year cohort graduation rate. State boards of education are similarly engaged in efforts to improve the high school curriculum and raise student achievement. Indeed, NASBE has undertaken multiple projects related to graduation rates and accountability, including a partnership with the Gates Foundation to redesign high schools.

More broadly, Norwood explained to the committee, the overarching goals of the No Child Left Behind Act–100% student proficiency and closing the achievement gap–cannot be achieved without effective high school reforms.

“The ’3 R’s’ of high school reform–Reform, Relevancy, and Reading–must be incorporated into state and federal policies,” said Norwood.

Reform — promoting intervention and recovery efforts as part of the comprehensive restructuring of high school.

Relevancy — crafting policies sensitive to the unique circumstances, interests, needs, and demands of students and schools and cognizant of the real world impact and reaction at the school and classroom level.

Reading — dramatically improving the reading abilities of high school students. Students lacking the necessary literacy skills are more likely to drop out, go to jail, and be unemployed.

“In today’s world, we, as education leaders, must communicate the message that a high school education and a high school diploma have become a bare necessity and should be a minimum expectation–if not a basic right–for all students. We have an obligation to protect and promote this right. Effective, meaningful, and rigorous high school reform policies are needed at the local, state, and federal levels in order to increase graduation rates, prevent dropouts, and raise overall student achievement,” said Norwood.

Dr. Norwood’s written testimony and that of the other hearing witnesses, including former Governor Bob Wise, as well as an archived webcast of the hearing are available on the House Education Committee website at http://edlabor.house.gov/hearings/fc042307.shtml.