Denver Post Editorial

Article Published:

Sunday, February 06, 2005

STATE'S HIGH SCHOOLS

NEED TOUGH SCRUTINY

In Colorado,

for the past two decades,

education reform has solely

been focused on elementary schools.

Meanwhile,

our children aren't graduating.

Fifty percent of today's
Denver Public Schools' ninth-graders
will never don a cap and gown.

Statewide, about 30 percent
won't make it to graduation.

Less than half
of all Colorado ninth-graders
will go on to college within four years.

And for those who do,
one in four will need remedial courses.

It doesn't take a college degree
to realize that Colorado high schools
are failing too many of our kids.

But for the past two decades,
education reform -
everything from standards
to testing
to teacher qualifications -
has been focused solely
on elementary schools.

It's not that high schools
were an afterthought,
it's just that they have always been
considered an immovable force.

But now,
trumpets are sounding a call
for high school reform.

President Bush addressed it briefly
in Wednesday night's
State of the Union, saying:

"Now we must demand better results
from our high schools
so every high school diploma
is a ticket to success."

In Colorado,
the crusade begins with two reports:

The privately funded
Colorado Commission
for High School Improvement
and the publicly financed
Denver Commission
on Secondary School Reform.

The Colorado Commission report,
released last month,
calls for a fluid preschool-to-college
approach to education
with better-aligned exit
and entrance criteria
between middle school,
high school and college.

It wants principals
to be given flexibility
so they can be more entrepreneurs
than bureaucrats.

It suggests using individual
student identifiers to track progress from middle school
to high school and beyond,
so educators will know
what programs and schools
are working.

The Denver Commission
was to release its report this week,
but it's been delayed.

A draft, obtained by The Post,
calls for more autonomy for principals
over budget, curriculum and hiring.

It also suggests schools
with more low-income students
receive more money
and more flexibility
in how that money can be spent.

The report's delay typifies
why it's so hard to change high schools.

When reform is urged,
the status quo is challenged
and interest groups push back.

Even so, when it's released,
it's expected to shake things up
for DPS high schools.

Both reports have the best interests
of high school students at heart,
rather than some of education's
traditional sacred cows.

That's a positive step forward.

Reform won't come overnight,
and policymakers need
to parse the reports carefully,
but we're glad Colorado's high schools
finally are under the microscope.