Articles and Op-Eds
High School teachers need to be better prepared to educate the nation's future generations (Commentary by Bob Wise)
The Hill's Congress Blog
November 13, 2009
According to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, over two thirds of new jobs created between 2006 and 2016 and approximately 90 percent of new high-growth and high-wage jobs will most likely go to workers with at least some education after high school. Realizing this challenge, President Obama set a goal earlier this year of leading the world in college completion rates by 2020. As recently as 1995, the United States ranked second in the world in college completion. In the years since, it has fallen to fourteenth. Meeting the president’s goal will be critical to the economic security of the nation, as well as individual students—getting there will require rethinking the way the nation prepares its teachers.
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Online Extra: The dropout problem (Op-Ed by Former Sec. of Ed. Richard Riley and Bob Wise) Even as America remains mired in the economic recession and the jobless rate continues to climb, we are being economically short-sighted if we do not address the fact that our nation’s high schools are churning out more than 1 million dropouts annually with few skills and poor employment prospects. If nothing is done to address this staggering problem, approximately 4.8 million young people will drop out of high school during President Obama’s first term of office, exerting a significant drag on the hoped-for economic recovery. ___________________________________________________________________________________________ Graduation Rates: No more dropouts—every student counts (Op-Ed by Alliance President Bob Wise) Last month, high school students across the commonwealth received their high school diplomas. For the graduating students and their families, graduation day is a very exciting time and an important accomplishment deserving much praise. It's also an important day for the nation's economy because each high school graduate represents, on average, $260,000 in additional earnings over the course of his or her lifetime compared to a high school dropout. ___________________________________________________________________________________________ Adolescent Literacy: The Cornerstone of Student Success (Commentary by Alliance President Bob Wise) Literacy is, in reality, the cornerstone of student achievement, for any student in any grade. To graduate all students prepared for college, success, and productive lives, secondary schools must anchor their reform efforts in a number of foundational strategies. Chief among them is improving literacy. Literacy—reading, writing, speaking, and thinking—is such a fundamental skill that all other academic success hinges on it. ___________________________________________________________________________________________ Rachel, Josh and Louis. I relish advocacy because it brings people together for common purpose. Amid speeches, conferences and legislation, the actual reason for advocacy can grow distant. Then you meet someone—or several people—whose experience reinforces what the advocacy is all about. Recently, I was confronted by the stark contrast between the relative orderliness of policy discussions and the chaotic lives that three homeless Albuquerque high school students discussed matter-of-factly. The setting was a citywide dropout summit sponsored by the Albuquerque School District, Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chávez, and the America's Promise Alliance. __________________________________________________________________________________________________ Education Is the True Economic Stimulus, a Special to Roll Call by Bob Wise Special to Roll Call by Bob Wise ... Every time a Member of Congress proposes to take up an issue, a reporter asks: “Shouldn’t Congress be focusing on the economy?” To which the lawmaker responds: “Congress can walk and chew gum at the same time.” Congress can not only perform the legislative equivalent of walking and chewing gum at the same time, it can simultaneously do the hokey-pokey, yodel and vacuum floors. That is to say, Congress is all about multitasking. It doesn’t have to defend itself when it ventures into various policy matters.
The State (SC)
July 12, 2009
Richmond Times-Dispatch (VA)
July 9, 2009
Leadership Information
July 1, 2009
Albuquerque Journal (NM)
June 2, 2009
Roll Call
June 11, 2009
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Thoughts on Education by Gov. Bob Wise : Getting the Education Car Out of the Ditch
January 15, 2009
In his first “Thoughts on Education,” Gov. Wise expects 2009 to bring about unprecedented challenges, but also an opportunity to take the bold steps necessary to transform secondary and postsecondary education so that the United States truly becomes an education society. How can he be so optimistic? Because, in his words, “Often the greatest political and legislative change comes only when we are faced with the greatest adversity. When the car is ‘deep in the ditch,’ everyone needs to jump in to push it out.”
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Opinion: School Bailout: Student Dropouts Are the Next Big Failing Financial Assets
U.S. News & World Report
December 26, 2008
Opinion by Bob Wise, former governor of West Virginia, and Alliance president & Marguerite W. Kondracke, President and CEO of America's Promise Alliance: As the Treasury debates the moral hazard of rescuing banks and other distressed businesses, which are arguably responsible for their own demise, there is one steadily growing group of nonperforming assets whose rescue poses no ethics debate and whose future is inextricably tied to the success of our nation. These are our children, and more than 1 million of them are dropping out of high school each year.
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Commentary & Opinion: No Child Left Behind: How Do We Know If We're Not Tracking?
Philanthropy News Digest
November 13, 2008
Alliance for Excellent President, and former governor of West Virginia, Bob Wise discussed the high school dropout crisis and the dilemma of varied graduation calculation rates conducted by individual states.
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Blog: Every Child a Graduate...An Economic Stimulus Plan that Works
Aspen Institute's National Education Summit Blog
September 11, 2008
Bob Wise, President, Alliance for Excellent Education: All Americans—whether they have a direct connection with schools or not—have a personal stake in ensuring that every child becomes a high school graduate, prepared for success in college, the modern workplace, and life.
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Letter to the Editor: Commitment needed
Chicago Tribune
September 2, 2008
Bob Wise, President, Alliance for Excellent Education: Preparing students for success in the emerging global economy does indeed require bold federal commitment, but unless that commitment extends to all candidates running for federal office, and not solely those with their eyes on the White House, meaningful reform is less likely to become a reality.
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High Schools at the Tipping Point
Educational Leadership
May 2008
Alliance for Excellent Education President Bob Wise writes in the May 2008 issue of Educational Leadership that the high school system in the United States is in crisis and faces a choice: Do nothing to fix a broken system and watch our competitiveness further decline, or summon the political will, direction and leadership at the federal level to achieve reform. In addition, the article suggests approaches that states, school districts, and schools should take.
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Letter to the Editor: Reforming Our Schools
The New York Times
May 2, 2008
As “A Nation at a Loss,” by Edward B. Fiske (Op-Ed, April 25), correctly indicates, not all of the fatalistic predictions made in the 1983 report “A Nation at Risk,” about American education, and specifically the link between failing education and a weak economy came to fruition. But the reality is that American education is still in turmoil.
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Letter to the Editor: Middle and high school students are lacking real life skills
USA Today
April 24, 2008
Bob Wise, President, Alliance for Excellent Education: USA TODAY's editorial "A nation still at risk" rightly points out that 1983's Nation at Risk report led to reforms that have resulted in academic achievement gains in the early grades. It also notes that "the gains fade in high schools".
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Letter to the Editor: Education gap persists
Washington Times
October 16, 2007
In order to ensure that all children stay in school and graduate prepared for postsecondary education and the workforce, schools, districts and states must make certain that standards and expectations are set high for all students. However, we also must make sure that resources, from classroom materials to high-quality teachers, are distributed equitably in all districts so that each student, regardless of background, will have an equally high chance of success in life.
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Letter to the Editor: It Was a Priority 
(PDF)
Vallejo Times-Herald (CA)
August 3, 2007
The headline of your story discussing a high school reform summit in Oakland suggested that the participating members of Congress did not arrive in time to benefit from the preceding panel discussions ("Lawmakers Late for Education Summit," July 22). As president of one of the sponsoring organizations, I want to correct this misunderstanding.
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Turning Reading Research Into Policy (PDF)
Reading Research Quarterly
July/August/September 2007
Article contribution by Alliance for Excellent Education President Bob Wise to the Reading Research Quarterly journal on turning reading research into policy.
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Letter to the Editor: Education Mathematics
The Washington Post
May 15, 2007
We can quibble over the exact percentages of American students who are doing extremely well in reading and math compared with their peers in other countries, but is that the issue?
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Letter to the Editor: Alliance calls for expanded federal investment in local schools (PDF)
Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune
February 25, 2007
In "High school dropouts could boost state economy" (February 11), Gus Mancuso, principal of Lincoln High School in Wisconsin Rapids, says that schools alone cannot solve the dropout crisis. We at the Alliance for Excellent Education could not agree more. We strongly believe that the federal government, working to support the efforts of local communities, needs to become a more active partner in reforming America's high schools.
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Letter to the Editor: An investment for success (PDF)
Sacramento Bee
January 16, 2007
Recently, we at the Alliance for Excellent Education found that if California's minority high school students graduated at rates equal to their white peers and went on to post-secondary education at similar rates, the state's economy would gain billions of dollars in additional personal income by 2020.
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Letter to the Editor: What's needed most to successfully educate US children?
Christian Science Monitor
December 20, 2006
Regarding the Dec. 15 article, "To fix US schools, panel says, start over": The New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce calls for drastic changes in the way we educate our students. I could not agree more.... Rethinking our schools, especially our high schools, is essential if we are to secure a future for all Americans.
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Letter to the Editor: Schools need the revamp
Dallas Morning News
December 19, 2006
In Texas, 74 percent of eighth-graders are reading below grade level. The state spends almost $89 million each year on remedial education in community colleges for recent high school graduates who did not acquire the skills necessary to succeed. Rethinking our schools, especially our high schools, is essential if we are to secure a future for all Americans.
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Opinion: A Clearer Picture Of Who Graduates
The Washington Post
May 28, 2006
Alliance for Excellent Education President Bob Wise writes about Maryland's new legislation requiring the state to abide by the National Governors Association’s compact committing states to institute a realistic, common definition of high school graduation rates.
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Improving Adolescent Literacy (Commentary by Bob Wise)
National Association of Elementary School Principals Newsletter
September 2005, Volume 14, Number 1
For all the headlines devoted to the so-called “reading wars” during the past few decades, and for all the recent
federal and state investment in research-based reading programs, the nation’s education policy-makers have
only just begun to take a serious, sustained interest in the literacy needs of students in the middle grades.