Concerned Citizens Can Make a Difference
Local
- Visit School Matters to download your state’s high schools’ report card.
- Write an article for your local paper or newsletter about your observations or experiences.
- Contact your local school board to get a meeting schedule. Attend meetings and demand they give more attention to high school reform.
- Contact your school district superintendent to find out whether the district has plans to implement high school reforms. Request immediate action if no initiative is planned.
- Although your local elected officials may not have direct responsibility for your area schools, request a meeting with, call or send a letter to your mayor and/or city council members to discuss strategies for raising community awareness about high school reform.
- Contact the Public Education Network to find and join an advocacy organization near you focused on high school reform.
State
- Write letters to, call, and/or request a meeting with your state elected representatives to share your concerns and the need for high school reform.
- Contact the Public Education Network to find an advocacy organization near you focused on high school reform.
- Join with an organization to participate in a lobby-day at the state capitol focused on high school education accountability and reform.
- Contact your chief state school officer to request more information about your state’s plans for improving high schools.
- If there are not enough library, computer, and/or textbook resources in your local schools, ask your state legislators and chief school officer to seek more support for these high school and others like it. Click to locate your representatives and school officers
- Connect with an existing or ask your governor to establish a “P-20” Council that coordinates state education from pre-kindergarten through graduate education.
National
- Write letters to, call, and/or request meetings with your Congressional representatives to share your concerns and the need for high school reform.
- Contact the Alliance for Excellent Education or the Public Education Network to find a national advocacy organization focused on high school reform.
- Join with an organization to participate in a lobby-day at the U.S. Capitol focused on high school education accountability and reform.
- Contact the Assistant Secretary for Communications and Outreach at the U.S. Department of Education to request more information about its plans for reforming high schools.
- Ask your Congressional representatives to increase federal funding support for high schools.
- Visit the Alliance for Excellent Education to sign up for updates about national high school reform initiatives and Congressional action alerts.
