# Archived Information

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**December 3, 2004: Virginia Gov. Mark Warner Speech**

Prepared remarks given by NGA Chairman Virginia Gov. Mark Warner at the
U.S. Department of Education\'s 2nd Annual National High School
Leadership Summit, Friday, Dec. 3, 2004 at the Marriott Wardman Park
Hotel, Washington, D.C.

Good afternoon. Thank you for that kind introduction, I am excited to
speak today with such a diverse and dynamic group of administrators,
teachers and policymakers.

While we all come here with our own individual ideas on how best to
reform our nation\'s high school system, we share one common goal\--to
make this system the best in the world. This is an important discussion,
and I look forward to furthering this dialogue that we all feel so
strongly and passionately about.

For years now, we have been working hard to bolster our nation\'s
education system, starting from the ground up with our youngest
students. And many of these reforms\--establishing K-12 standards and
accountability systems, expanding access to early childhood, and
improving literacy rates\--have been successful. But our past
achievements do not justify complacency.

Unfortunately, the assumption that fixing the early grades would somehow
magically fix high schools has not borne out. When three of every 10
high school students fail to earn their diploma, there is something
wrong. When students go through high school without being able to read,
there is something wrong. And when we are not giving all students a
chance to succeed because we are not preparing them for life after high
school, there is something wrong.

At a time when the global economy is demanding even more from our high
school and college graduates, we should be demanding more from our high
schools and expecting more from our students.  

On the one hand, high school isn\'t rigorous enough for those who are
ready to achieve\--of those students that do graduate, only 32 percent
are ready to attend a four-year college and nearly 50 percent of
entering college freshman fail to earn a degree in six years. 

On the other hand, high school continues to leave too many at-risk kids
behind. Despite our efforts to improve K-8 education in this country,
the achievement gap between our nation\'s high- and low-income students
continues to widen.

In fact, the learning gap between white and minority students is more
profound at the high school level today than it has ever been\--barely
half of African American and Hispanic ninth graders complete high school
in four years.

The message is clear: despite our best efforts, too many of our
adolescents and young adults are not getting the tools they need to
succeed.

My friends, the picture is not entirely bleak. In my position as
chairman of the National Governors Association, I have seen firsthand
the remarkable work being done around the country to help improve our
high school system. Increasingly, governors on both sides of the aisle
are taking the lead on high school reform.

We are facing competing challenges that pose risks for us as we attempt
to develop statewide agendas. These challenges are two-fold: we must
help our lowest achieving students, but, at the same time, we must
continue raising our school standards to match the expectations of
today\'s employers and colleges.

Overcoming these obstacles will not be easy, but we have no choice. To
succeed, we must challenge, not coddle, our students\--the high
achievers, those struggling to stay afloat and everyone in between.

Make no mistake: America\'s failure to address this issue in a rapidly
evolving economy will have profound effects on our nation\'s economic
competitiveness in the future. We can\'t afford to leave a generation of
students behind.

In a recent *Business Week* article, I was struck by a Lucent
Technologies\--executive, who said: \"The real reason for going global
with R&D is\...to make sure you\'re getting the world\'s best
talent\--and the world\'s best talent doesn\'t necessarily come to the
United States.\"

This should be a wake-up call.

Long a leader in innovation, America is increasingly facing serious
threats to its competition from abroad. Estimates show that China will
graduate 350,000 new engineers per year. In contrast, American
universities are producing less than 100,000 annually. The world is
catching up.

As the recent report, *Measuring Up 2004*, found, we must change course,
otherwise we will find ourselves down the road with diminished
opportunities for many Americans and greater economic vulnerability for
the country and the states. We cannot afford this.

As NGA Chairman, my initiative to redesign the American high school is
focused on helping governors address ways to overcome these complex
challenges.

By helping governors imagine how high school, particularly the senior
year, can be redefined, we at NGA are enabling states to help all
students meet existing standards for high school, while increasing the
opportunities they have to take challenging courses that lead to either
college credit or industry certification.

NGA has focused its attention on the critical need for states to enact
real, tangible system-wide reform of high school in order to allow every
student to graduate better prepared either for college or a successful
career.

From establishing goals to pushing for higher standards and more
accountability, history shows that governors have been among the most
active and effective leaders of school reform efforts in this country. I
am happy to report that this trend shows no sign of slowing.

Since we launched this initiative in September, many of my fellow
governors have expressed to me a renewed desire to take on high school
reform issues. Governors are engaged in exploring ways that they can
improve high school achievement.

Last month, as part of my initiative, NGA brought together more than 30
of the nation\'s governors\' senior education advisors in South Carolina
for the first of two learning institutes to help states identify what
they need to create a system of top-notch high schools.

Afterwards, NGA sent these advisors back to their states to work on a
preliminary plan for high school reform with their respective governors.
NGA is encouraging governors to refer to your hard work developing state
plans through these summits. In January, NGA will reconvene key state
leaders to prepare further for the 2005 National Education Summit on
High Schools.

Just last month, my friend Ohio Gov. Bob Taft and I hosted the first of
a series of televised town hall meetings around the country to talk
about high school, the senior year and impediments to achieving success
after graduation. These meetings give parents, teachers, administrators,
and especially students the chance to weigh in about reforms that we are
proposing.

One of the most exciting aspects of my initiative, is an online survey
of more than 10,000 American high school students later this year. It\'s
all well and good for us\--the supposed experts and policymakers\--to
debate the merits of education reform. We are very good at talking. But
for too long, the voices of the students, parents and teachers have been
missing from this debate. These are the folks who are on the frontlines
of this reform movement and their input should always frame our
discussion.

In addition, the NGA Center for Best Practices will be developing a
series of best practices and a \"Top 10 List\" of achievable policy
actions.  

Specifically, we\'ll be looking to find the best programs in three
areas:

First: College-level work needs to be fully transferable to public
colleges and universities. Most states need to put collaborative
agreements between in place between high school and post-secondary
institutions to align their curriculums. The goal is to provide every
student with an opportunity to earn postsecondary credit or begin work
towards an industry credential while in high school.

Second: Too many states have been unwilling to administer high school
exit exams because, frankly, they know too many of their high schools
would flunk the test. States need to put in place system-wide supports
so seniors can ace these exams, not just pass them\--but more
importantly so we know that they are ready to make the transition to
college or a good job.  If not, we\'ll continue to experience a decline
in college graduation rates, while businesses look abroad for skilled
workers.

Third: At present no state has a system in place to track drop-out and
graduation rates. We are going to develop and recommend a common,
national definition that governors can use to compare their progress to
other states. There is no way to know if we are succeeding if we can\'t
adequately measure our progress.

Next month, governors will begin delivering their annual state of the
state addresses. Thanks in part to our focus on redesigning the American
high school and the extremely successful regional and national summits
hosted by the U.S. Department of Education, I expect at least half a
dozen governors will highlight high school improvement strategies in
their 2005 addresses.

Moreover, the nation\'s governors will be taking part in the 2005
National Education Summit on High Schools in Washington in February
hosted by NGA and Achieve. The summit, which will bring the nation\'s
governors together with business executives and education leaders, will
build on previous national summits, which helped galvanize the education
reform efforts we see in effect today.

Folks, the momentum is building. We must act on it.

But to act, we need help. And given President Bush\'s \"Promise of
America\" blueprint and the Secretary\'s High School Initiative, the
landscape has never been more promising than it is right now. The
nation\'s governors and the federal government share a commitment to
better prepare our nation\'s young adults for college and the workforce.
I am optimistic that we can work together over the coming year to help
one another.

For governors, the timing is ideal to reassert our leadership on
education policy. The Congressional calendar offers enormous
opportunities for governors to further reform education. As you know, a
\"Perfect Storm\" is on the horizon. The 109th Congress will reauthorize
three of the five major education laws\--Head Start, Higher Education,
and the Perkins Vocational Education Act.

Under the leadership of Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius and Minnesota Gov.
Tim Pawlenty, NGA\'s education committee will take a more holistic
approach to these landmark pieces of legislation by trying to align
federal and state education systems from preschool through college.

The confluence of these reauthorizations, gives all of us an
extraordinary opportunity to align, once and for all, the federal
education laws to each other and support state efforts to create real
P-16 alignment.  

The nation\'s governors have taken the lead in recognizing the
fundamental state responsibility for a seamless progression from
preschool through college. From Georgia to Oregon to Rhode Island,
states are building on efforts to create state P-16 councils that will
oversee the integration of early, elementary, secondary and
postsecondary education. 

Governors are also leading efforts to better monitor student success
throughout their education experience. Recognition of this seamless
educational continuum is important in fashioning educational policies at
the federal, state, and local levels.  We must look at each
reauthorization as a significant piece in a much larger puzzle.

Federal P-16 alignment will ultimately improve education for students of
all ages. Moreover, P-16 alignment will help to eliminate unnecessary
government bureaucracy, reduce costly duplication, align academic
standards and preparation, expand system wide accountability, and
promote flexibility for innovation. 

Already, local, state and federal officials have a lot of common ground.
For instance, both the federal government and states want to expand
access to rigorous courses. The Administration\'s proposal to expand
Advanced Placement access is noteworthy, and so are statewide efforts in
Florida, Texas, and, my home state of Virginia that are looking to
increase access to Advanced Placement classes for all students, train
more AP teachers, and offer virtual academies and high schools so our
rural students have equal access to challenging courses.

I know that everyone in this room today wants to help high-achieving,
low-income students afford college. It\'s good economic policy, and
it\'s good social policy. In the states, we are seeing sound initiatives
to make this goal a reality.

Oklahoma and Indiana, for instance, offer financial assistance for low
and moderate-income students who play by the rules, take hard courses
and enroll in college. These students are not only better prepared for
college; they are succeeding once they get there at much higher rates.
As we approach these pending reauthorizations, how can federal policies
reflect the lessons learned from exemplary state policies like these.

The answer is simple. Partnership. Nothing substantial or important has
been accomplished in the United States without strong partnerships
between people who share similar interests and are willing to put
differences, and often partisanship, aside for a common goal.

While I have spoken about the partnership between the governors and the
federal government, I can\'t conclude without saying that we must not
forget a crucial lesson we learned in the education reform of the last
two decades.

The time has come for legislators, policymakers and education leaders to
begin thinking of early learning, elementary, secondary and
postsecondary education one system, and not several disparate systems.

By increasing educational opportunities for all, aligning curricular
requirements and expectations across all levels of education,
implementing seamless data systems, and making the system easier to
understand for parents, students and teachers, a fluid P-16 system will
increase student achievement and close historic gaps between groups of
students.

There is one more critical partner that we must bring to the table.
Without college and university presidents on board, we cannot possibly
hope to improve the rigor of high schools or improve the training
teachers receive to improve adolescents\' literacy, math, and science
skills.

Without strong and vocal leadership from our state colleges and
universities we can\'t make the necessary transition from high school to
college as seamless as our children and families deserve and as the
nation\'s economic future demands.

I look forward to hearing from college presidents in February\'s
National Education Summit on High Schools, and I charge each of you here
today to ask yourselves if your state\'s college presidents are central
players in how you are thinking of redesigning your high schools and
your current K-12 system.

I know they can be independent and reluctant, but we\'ve made real
progress in Virginia in the last couple of years and I have learned that
we must ask and expect to work closely with our state\'s higher
education leaders.

I want high school curricula to reflect the realities and the
expectations of higher education and today\'s global marketplace. To
restore rigor and relevance to the high school experience, states must
recognize that good jobs require more skills and education.

We need a single education pipeline that bridges the divide between
secondary and postsecondary systems and gives students the common,
high-skills required by colleges and employers today. Let\'s begin
building that pipeline today.

The states and the nation face a challenging agenda if we are to meet
the needs of our democracy for an educated citizenry, of individuals for
educational and economic opportunity, and of both for competitiveness in
the global economy. There is much to be done. No state can afford to
ignore the imperative for increasing the accessibility, effectiveness,
and affordability of higher education.

I am very encouraged by the fact that there is growing interest in high
school reform here in Washington. And these coming debates give
governors a chance to forge a stronger and more productive partnership
with Congress and the Administration. I know there are many people from
Capitol Hill and the White House here today, and I want to pledge that I
will do everything I can as NGA chairman to achieve that.

*Printed from the NGA web site.*

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