This op-ed by Secretary Margaret Spellings and Senator Edward M. Kennedy appeared in The Politico on May 12, 2007.

If we developed a vaccine that could save a million children a year from crippling illness, would we use it? Of course we would. We’d move heaven and earth to identify the patients and distribute the medicine. We’d never just shrug our shoulders and hope for the best.

America is enduring an epidemic right now that causes its victims lifelong pain and misery. It’s called the high school dropout crisis. Each year, approximately 1 million students do not finish school in time to graduate with their peers. As adults, they are more likely to be unhealthy, unemployed, in poverty or in prison.

In 1963, President John F. Kennedy decried the fact that 4 out of 10 fifth-graders did not finish high school. He called it “a waste we cannot afford.” Forty-four years later, the dropout rate for African-American, Hispanic and Native American students approaches 50 percent. Year after year, the wasted lives go on. Millions of poor children are trapped in an unending cycle of poverty. A quality education breaks that cycle and opens for them new doors of opportunity for a brighter future.

This week, educators, policymakers and business leaders are convening in Washington for the National Summit on America’s Silent Epidemic to find ways to solve this crisis. They understand that doing so is not just a moral imperative. It’s an economic necessity. The United States has the most severe income gap between high school graduates and dropouts in the world.

So what can we do?

First, we need to recognize that this is not just a high school problem. It’s a kindergarten-Grade 12 problem. It starts in the elementary years, when standards and expectations are set. Children who do not learn to read or do basic math in the early grades find it very difficult to catch up in the faster-moving middle and high school years.

Five years ago, Congress passed the No Child Left Behind Act to hold schools accountable for bringing all children up to grade level in reading and math. Today, all 50 states have standards, assessments and accountability procedures that enable us to follow the achievement of every group of students. Each school now measures performance, based not just on its overall student population, but on its progress in closing achievement gaps for each student and enabling all students to meet high standards. Schools use assessments under the act to identify weaknesses in instruction and areas of need for their students. These are significant reforms, and they are working. But to fulfill our promise, much more must be done - particularly at the high school level.

Far too many students continue to face overwhelming academic challenges in school and need additional help. According to a recent study, 43 percent of students who dropped out reported having fallen behind in their studies after missing too much school. One-third reported that they were failing in their schoolwork.

These numbers are unacceptable. We must address this challenge by providing additional support to engage students in school, keep them on track and help them succeed in earning their high school diplomas.

The landmark 1983 report "A Nation at Risk" called for a minimum of three years each of math and science before a student could graduate. A quarter-century later, nearly half the states have yet to require that amount.

Rigorous and challenging coursework should be offered to all students. It should be aligned to the expectations of employers and universities. In addition, Advanced Placement and college-level classes should be offered, especially by schools in high-poverty neighborhoods. We know that children can do such work, regardless of family income. It's time to give them the opportunity.

Second, we must attack the problem at its source. Fifteen percent of the nation's high schools produce more than half of its dropouts. We must give communities the support to staff these struggling schools with good teachers and turn them around. We must significantly increase federal resources for high schools that serve economically disadvantaged students.

Third, we must recognize the importance of good data as the only way to diagnose the problem. Unfortunately, we are hindered by the current crazy-quilt approach to calculating graduation rates. In some districts, students who leave school are counted as dropouts only if they have registered as dropouts. In other districts, a dropout's promise to get a GED by an unspecified future date is all it takes to receive "graduate" status.

Recently, the nation's governors agreed to adopt a uniform method of measuring graduation rates. We should also insist that the data be sufficient to know who is dropping out and why. These are positive first steps. But they come at a time when some in Washington have called on states to opt out of accountability for student progress.

That's the wrong approach. We cannot allow the great hope of Brown v. Board of Education to go unrealized. We need to turn up the spotlight on our schools, not keep parents and teachers in the dark. Solving the nation's dropout crisis will take a nationwide effort. Let's act as if students' lives are at stake - because they are.

Margaret Spellings
Secretary of Education

Senator Edward M. Kennedy
Chairman of the Education, Labor and Pensions Committee