Low-performing high schools are resisting change even in localities where elementary schools are getting better. Cities like Houston and Chicago, which seem to be doing a little better on elementary reading and mathematics, admit that their high schools are stuck. Recently, when researchers at the Center on Reinventing Public Education decided to study rapidly improving low-income schools in Washington state, they were able to find many elementary schools but few high schools. The traditional departmental structure of high schools makes it virtually impossible for them to change. Principal and teacher shortages are severe, especially in urban areas.
Most cities also have difficulty finding enough good principals.
Seattle openly maintains a policy of rotating 25 outstanding principals among its nearly 100 schools. Other cities have difficulty recruiting enough principals to fill job vacancies. In Portland, Ore., nearly half the principals were new at the beginning of the 1998-1999 school year, and more than half the newcomers were recruited from other districts in the state, sometimes setting off shortages in those localities. Standards-based reform also is exposing schools and school systems to new performance pressures. These issues are real, not manufactured.