A New Consensus of the Purposes of Public Education?

By Paul E. Barton and Richard J. Coley, Educational Testing Service, 2011. Today’s high schools face unprecedented challenges in preparing graduates for today’s rapidly changing job market and for the variety of postsecondary experiences that the current economy is demanding. The mission of the U.S. high school has undergone many changes in its long history. A decade and a half ago, education reformers called to define the mission of the high school as the preparation of students to succeed in college. As that drumbeat grew louder, some voices called further for high schools to prepare students, once they are in college, to score sufficiently high on college placement tests to bypass remedial courses and enter credit courses. That mission has been expanded and further defined as the preparation of students for both “college and careers.” Although the term “careers” was added, its meaning is vague, since the types of careers that require college-level academic preparation and the numbers of jobs they may represent are matters of some debate. Another increasingly recognized mission of the high school is to prepare individuals to be lifelong learners in a world where the nature of work will constantly change over individuals’ lifetimes. Learn more...