7-07-07, 11:32 am

Several of the nation's largest civil rights organizations representing communities of color unveiled a strategic plan for high school reform to a packed room on Capitol Hill.

In conjunction with the Alliance for Excellent Education (AEE), civil rights groups, including Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Education Fund (LCCREF), the NAACP, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, and the Southeast Asia Action Resource Center, have formed the Campaign for High School Equity (CHSE), to ensure that America's high schools are preparing every student, particularly students of color, for 'graduation, college, work, and life.'

'The Campaign for High School Equity is an historic alliance of respected civil rights organizations standing together to call for the improvement of middle and high school education for the nation's communities of color,' said Bob Wise, president of AEE and former governor of West Virginia. 'All Americans must be educated to the highest level possible to ensure America's future.'

CHSE released its plan in a report called 'A Plan for Success: Communities of Color Define Policy Priorities for High School Reform' on June 19 and launched a website, www.highschoolequity.org.

CHSE's goal is to ensure that national education priorities include systemic high school reform, educate communities (particularly communities of color) about the need for high school reform, and mobilizing legislators, policy makers, parents and students to push for change in their own school districts.

Civil rights groups point to recent statistics on graduation and dropout rates as just a few reasons for working with high schools. 'The statistical profile of educational equity, access, and achievement for students of color is far too bleak,' said NAACP National Education Director Michael T.S. Wotorson.

Approximately 1.2 million students drop out of high schools each year-half of whom are students of color- according to the CHSE's report. In addition, minority students are four times more likely to attend one of the 2,000 American high schools that produce half of the nation's dropouts. In contrast, white students are four times as likely as African American and Latino students to have access to Advanced Placement classes.

'Inequality is rampant by almost every measure' said Wade Henderson, counselor to the LCCREF and president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights. 'No Child Left Behind's test scores paint a bleak picture of the achievement gap, with virtually every state's white students passing state exams at a significantly higher rate than low income, minority, and language minority students.'

Other members of the CHSE include the National Council of La Raza, the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Educational Fund, the National Urban League, the National Indian Education Association, and the League of United Latin American Citizens.