Reingold Puts 12th Grade Preparedness on the Map

From Jackson, Mississippi, to San Francisco, California, the National Assessment Governing Board's 12th Grade Preparedness Commission has sounded the alarm on the challenges facing today's high school graduates—and vowed to see that future graduates are ready to tackle college-level academics and training for successful careers. With Reingold's help, Commission Chairman and former Mississippi Gov. Ronnie Musgrove made his mark not only in the press, but also among the leaders presenting at the National Urban League's Centennial Conference.

"It's no simple task to generate excitement about the Governing Board's 17 research studies on using the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)—The Nation's Report Card—to finally define standards of high school preparedness," said Valerie Marrapodi, Reingold's project manager for the Governing Board, which sets policy for NAEP. "But people grasp the urgency of preparing the next generation for success in an intensely competitive global economy. We're pleased to be getting the Commission's message out to essential stakeholder groups."

Thanks to Reingold's strategic media outreach, on July 4 The Jackson Clarion-Ledger's Sunday opinion page led with an op ed by Gov. Musgrove titled "We're Missing the Boat"—complete with a half-page editorial cartoon of a high school grad waving goodbye to a "knowledge-based economy" ship as it sails from the dock.

Within two weeks, The New York Times published Musgrove's letter to the editor, followed by his op ed on August 3 in Education Week—America's pre-eminent education newspaper. Governing Board member and Sacramento County (CA) Superintendent of Schools David Gordon added his voice in a September 24 op ed published in the San Francisco Chronicle.

And in a powerful moment in the movement for universal educational excellence, on July 28 Musgrove participated in the National Urban League's Centennial Town Hall on Education joining forces with the League to advance one of its four Empowerment Goals for 2025: Every American child is ready for college, work, and life.