The North Carolina New Schools Project: Strategy | NCNSP Goal

Challenging standards. Meaningful classwork connected to life after high school. Supportive relationships between teachers and students. Teachers working together to ensure every student succeeds. That's the expectation North Carolina must set and the promise on which our high schools must deliver.

Our high schools were designed in a different time to support a different economy. They no longer serve us in a way that gives every student the best chance to graduate, to opt for college, to get a good job and to add to our communities.

Too many students are bored and disconnected from the realities of the modern workplace. Even worse, far too few students finish high school with skills crucial for success as adults. Students list boring classes and disconnection from school life as top reasons for dropping out — and half of recent high school graduates say that they have found gaps in their preparation for college and for the workplace. North Carolina must change what it expects from students and from schools — so that all students graduate fully prepared for college, career and life.

North Carolina can't afford dropouts. One of every four ninth graders in North Carolina does not graduate in five years. That is the equivalent of 131 students quitting every school day. The Alliance for Excellent Education reports that, for just one year of dropouts from the class of 2009, North Carolina will fail to benefit from $12 billion in lost lifetime earnings from students who failed to graduate.

Students must be ready to succeed. Being prepared for a good job in today's global, knowledge-based economy also means being prepared for college. Jobs that require some education beyond high school now account for a majority of the workforce, and this trend is accelerating. Currently, fewer than two of every 10 high school students in North Carolina end up with a two- or four-year college degree.

Global competition demands innovation. North Carolina's traditional manufacturing and agriculture jobs are disappearing, and the state's future success demands a workforce able to compete in new knowledge-based industries.

Read a summary of the 2007 surveys of voters and students commissioned by the NC New Schools Project.