Addressing the Invisibility, Invention, and Infrastructure Challenges: Testimony for House Committee on Education and Labor

JFF vice president Adria Steinberg spoke to the Committee on Education and Labor, U.S. House of Representatives, at a hearing on the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Testifying in connection with the Miller-McKeon Discussion Draft of the reauthorization bill, she said, “There is no more critical goal than increasing the number of young people who graduate from high school and ensuring that these graduates are ready for college and careers.”

Drawing on JFF's work toward that goal, Steinberg focused on three key challenges facing districts and communities as they seek to seal leaks in the education pipeline: the invisibility of the graduation rate crisis; the invention challenge on the need for new models of secondary schooling that use evidence-based approaches to help young people reengage with school, build their skills, earn a diploma, and advance to postsecondary education and careers; and the infrastructure challenge of creating state policies that encourage and support schools and districts in the hard work of turnaround, reinvention, and model design.