High schools: the next frontier to tackle.

The nation's governors will take a crack at improving U.S. high schools at a special conference next month in Washington, D.C. The National Education Summit on High Schools will focus on increasing graduation rates and ensuring that high school graduates are prepared to succeed in higher education and the workplace.

The meeting will bring together governors from all 50 states and five U.S. territories with top business executives and education leaders. NGA Chairman and Virginia Governor Mark Warner will co-chair the session with Achieve Vice Chair Kerry Killinger, CEO of Washington Mutual, a financial services company.

"We're looking for some actions that governors can take back to their states and implement quickly, cheaply and on a system-wide basis," says Warner. He wants governors to address ways to reduce high school dropouts, improve curricula, and attract higher-quality teachers into hard-to-staff schools.

President Bush said during his reelection campaign that high school students should pass more achievement tests before graduating. But "tests without remediation is not the right approach," says Warner. "If you have high standards, you have to go the extra mile in helping kids meet those standards."

"If Bush wants more testing, he should fund ways to remedy the problems identified by the testing," agrees Jack Jennings, director of the Washington-based Center on Education Policy, an independent advocate for public education.

POSSIBLE FIXES

* Programs to allow high school seniors to earn college degree credits that could be transferred to a higher education institution;

* Industry certification programs to help students who want to work right after graduation;

* Remediation programs to help students pass high-standard exit exams.

Alan Dessoff

www.achieve.org