SREB Goals for Education: 
Challenge to Lead

South must keep improving its education efforts
Ronald R. Ingle

In 1940, less than 20 percent of South Carolinians aged 25 or older held a high school diploma and less than 5 percent had earned a baccalaureate degree. With these data, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's 1938 declaration of the South as “the nation's No. 1 economic problem” ought not to be surprising. A decade later, recognizing that economic development is closely linked to educational progress 14 Southern states formed the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB).

In 1961, SREB said that education in the South must be “measured against the same criteria of excellence which are applied everywhere.” In 1988, the goal became lifting Southern education from long-standing bottom rankings to parity with national averages for both K-12 and higher education.

By 2000, the states of SREB had met and surpassed the goal of meeting the national average on a number of indicators. For example:

· SREB states lead the nation in the percentage of children in state-funded preschool programs.

· SREB states led mathematics achievement gains of eighth-graders in the 1990s.

· SREB states lead the nation in the percentage high school students taking Advanced Placement exams to earn college credit.

These few examples indicate remarkable success in overcoming many of the deficiencies that led to a national reputation of educational shoddiness and indifference in the southern US. In 2000, 83 percent of South Carolinians aged 25 or older hold a high school diploma and nearly 20 percent have earned a baccalaureate degree. Such four-fold gains are common throughout the SREB region.

Now, there are 16 SREB states: Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia. Recently, SREB members have announced 12 new goals. The 2002 Goals for Education: Challenge to Lead declares that education in the South will seek not merely parity but leadership. Challenge to Lead intends a cohesive system of education extending from the cradle to a lifetime of productive citizenship:

1. All children are ready for the first grade.

2. Achievement in the early grades for all groups of students exceeds national averages and performance gaps are closed.

3. Achievement in the middle grades for all groups of students exceeds national averages and performance gaps are closed.

4. All young adults have a high school diploma - or, if not, pass the GED tests.

5. All recent high school graduates have solid academic preparation and are ready for postsecondary education and a career.

6. Adults who are not high school graduates participate in literacy and job-skills training and further education.

7. The percentage of adults who earn postsecondary degrees or technical certificates exceeds national averages.

8. Every school has higher student performance and meets state academic standards for all students each year.

9. Every school has leadership that results in improved student performance - and leadership begins with an effective school principal.

10. Every student is taught by qualified teachers.

11. The quality of colleges and universities is regularly assessed and funding is targeted to quality, efficiency and state needs.

12. The state places a high priority on an education system of schools, colleges and universities that is accountable.

As an educator and as a board member of SREB, I am especially proud that each of these goals uses rigorous assessment and accountability tests to measure success. As an educator, I appreciate the value of continual assessment of students, teachers, and administrators to assure the efficacy of our methods. As a public school educator, I appreciate the necessity of continual accountability to assure the most efficient use of public funds. As a SREB board member, I am proud of a South that has distinguished itself for granting educational opportunity a high priority among other important public services.

South Carolinians have a huge stake in meeting these 12 goals. All South Carolinians, and indeed the entire nation, will benefit from the return on investment, from a robust and diverse economy sparked by a knowledgeable and trained workforce that finds greater opportunity here than elsewhere. SREB can set the themes and goals of educational pre-eminence, but success must finally be a full collaboration of taxpayers, providers, and beneficiaries.