Decision 2012: How Will the Elections Affect Federal and State Education Policy?

After months of intense campaigning, the 2012 elections have come to a close, begging the question from education advocates: How will the results of the 2012 elections affect federal and state education policy? Writing for the Alliance's "High School Soup" blog, Alliance President Bob Wise offers some answers.

Gov. Wise focuses on what is likely to change--and what will not--at the federal and state levels and looks at some of the new people who will play a role in education policy in the U.S. House of Representatives, U.S. Senate, and in governors' mansions and state legislatures around the country.

In a different blog post, Alliance Senior Fellow Robert Rothman examines whether the defeat of Indiana State Superintendent of Education Tony Bennett spells doom for the common core state standards. (He says it doesn't).

Find the Lowest-Performing High Schools in Your State

One in four high school students do not graduate and just 12 percent of the nation‘s high schools produce nearly half of the nation‘s dropouts. Within these lowest-performing high schools (sometimes known as "dropout factories"), just 60 percent or fewer of entering freshmen progress to their senior year three years later.

Prioritizing the Nation's Lowest-Performing High Schools, an issue brief from the Alliance, notes that the lowest-performing high schools are located in every state; in urban, suburban, rural, and small-town America; in large high schools and small. Their one unifying characteristic is that they disproportionately serve our nation‘s poor and minority students.

In an era of diminishing financial resources, it makes good economic sense to target the nation's lowest-performing high schools and focus attention, commitment, and resources on improving them, the brief argues. Directing strategic efforts to turn around these schools could significantly reduce the nation's dropout rate.

"When emergency medical personnel arrive at an accident scene, they immediately deliver treatment to the most severely injured, said Bob Wise, president of the Alliance for Excellent Education and former governor of West Virginia. "Similarly, the nation must focus its attention on the lowest-performing schools with the largest number of ‘victims' in the national dropout crisis. The fact that these schools are so widespread and contribute so greatly to the national dropout crisis dictates making them an essential focus of any federal effort to improve the graduation rate."

While not a graduation rate, a school’s “promoting power” is a good indicator of how well schools are educating their students. See how high schools across the country perform by going to the Promoting Power database. High schools with promoting power less than 60 percent make up the nation's lowest-performing high schools.

Recent Posts from the Alliance's High School Soup Blog

Read more at the High School Soup Blog.

Challenges and Solutions for Helping English Language Learners Meet Higher Expectations Associated with Common Core

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) offer great promise for advancing the quality of education and outcomes for all students, but meeting the higher expectations associated with them could prove especially daunting for the rapidly growing population of English language learners (ELLs)—students who must learn grade-level content while simultaneously trying to master the English language.

The Role of Language and Literacy in College- and Career-Ready Standards: Rethinking Policy and Practice in Support of English Language Learners, a new report from the Alliance for Excellent Education discusses these challenges, highlights initiatives already underway to help ELLs meet these challenges, and outlines how policy and practice must change to help ELLs graduate ready for college and a career.

Read the press release or download the complete report.