CHARLESTON — Former West Virginia Gov. Bob Wise sees a crisis in American high schools, and hopes citizens and politicians take note.
Wise, who left office in 2005, is president of the Alliance for Excellent Education, a Washington, D.C., nonprofit organization that seeks better high schools and strives for more graduates. Wise says his new book — “Raising the Grade: How High School Reform Can Save Our Youth and Our Nation” — is a call to action.
In the book, Wise speaks fondly of his West Virginia roots and remembers visiting workers at a shirt factory before it closed. He wrote that “the economic forces rumbling thousands of miles away from rural West Virginia were inexorably in play.” He still wonders where those workers ended up.
“I talked about West Virginia because West Virginia is what I’ve known all my life,” Wise said. “I wish I had known as governor and in Congress what I’ve learned the last three years of my life.”
Wise now works primarily in urban areas, but has noticed that the crisis affects people across the country. Every day, America’s education system lags further behind its competitors in the global work force and turns off high school students in the process, he said.
“Those low-skill jobs that paid a livable wage are gone and they’re gone across most of the country,” he said.
As governor, Wise hoped his efforts helped expand students’ access to college and opened up more opportunities for pre-kindergarten children.
“Having said that, I think I missed the middle,” Wise said. “I didn’t focus enough on high schools and middle schools. A lot of this book is about what I wish I had known. High school is the jumping-off spot for the rest of life.”
Wise wrote in the book about 10 elements of a successful high school, such as rigorous coursework, personal attention given to all students, extra help for students who need it, family and community involvement, skilled teachers and more. He describes a new federal role that focuses more resources and attention on “reinventing the American high school experience.”
That said, Wise does not want to take dollars away from early and post-secondary education.
“I am saying that education is a continual process,” Wise said. “If you build us a foundation, you still need help finishing the house.”
He says the first priority of the federal government is to do no harm. Wise noted the Medicaid crisis that plagued West Virginia early in his tenure as governor. At the time, he asked a room full of health officials how the situation got so bad. One laughed and reminded Wise of federal legislation he voted for as a member of Congress three years earlier.
When President Bush leaves office next year, Wise said the federal No Child Left Behind law does not need to be abandoned, because it holds educators accountable. Yet he believes the law needs to focus more on high schools.
“It should be altered, and it needs to be expanded,” he said. “While it does have accountability for test scores, there is not the similar accountability for graduation.”
States have about five ways they can report graduation rates, and school officials can set a low bar for improving graduation in their states, Wise said. The Alliance for Excellent Education has been critical of the way West Virginia high schools calculate the graduation rate. Still, Wise said state schools have not set a low bar for improving on the number of students who graduate. Soon, federal education officials are expected to set one method to calculate graduation rates.
“At least now we’re going to be able to compare apples to apples,” Wise said.
Wise quotes U.S. Census statistics in the book that show the average high school dropout earns about $17,300 a year while a graduate earns about $27,000. An average college graduate will earn more than $52,600. He also notes this statistic: If the students who dropped out of the class of 2006 had graduated, the nation’s economy would have benefited from an additional $309 billion in income over their lifetimes.
Wise hopes that the book serves to remind people of the importance of every community high school.
“I’m trying to get people galvanized and motivated, not just people but also the Congress,” he said. “Hopefully this book can be a motivating factor to get congressional action.”
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