Column originally published Sunday, January 20, 2008</p><p>High schools must do more than prepare students to enroll in college. They must groom them to succeed once they get there.</p><p>As The Star notes in an editorial today, schools don&#8217;t perform that task equally. Some offer courses rigorous enough for students to earn college credits. Others graduate students so unprepared they must take remedial courses once they get to campus.</p><p>The push to enroll all students in college or some sort of job training is changing high schools.</p><p>More is expected of students, teachers and counselors. The days of coasting through senior year are over. The high school diploma is no longer an end goal, but a ticket to the next step.</p><p>Some schools and districts are meeting the changing demands better than others. And they are challenged in different ways.</p><p>Districts that serve low-income families face the initial test of raising achievement among students whose families may not have been able to help them learn basic skills. Schools that serve more prosperous families must find ways to serve very ambitious students while raising the expectations of teenagers who approach school without much motivation or confidence.</p><p>All of them must constantly update curriculums to meet the expectations of colleges, employers and state assessment tests.</p><p>The five school district leaders featured talked about what their schools are doing to prepare students for a future requiring increasingly sophisticated knowledge and skills.</p><p>Highlights of the interviews are summarized here.</p><p>Next week, The Star will print excerpts from interviews with leaders of universities and colleges.</p><p>Profiles of five students from the school districts featured here were printed Jan. 13. The stories and videotaped interviews with the students can be found at <a href="http://www.kansascity.com/opinion">www.kansascity.com/opinion</a>, in a special report, Paths to College.</p><p><strong><span class="subhead">Life beyond high school</span></strong></p><p><strong><span class="subhead">Ensuring choices for everyone</span></strong></p><p>David McGehee, Lee&#8217;s Summit School District superintendent</p><p>His challenge: Prepare all students for education or training beyond high school.</p><p>His focus: Make more high-level courses available in the middle schools.</p><p>On life after high school: "Those entry-level jobs are harder to come by, and many of them are requiring more education than when some of us went to school. I believe our district should prepare every student for that opportunity to go on to some type of postsecondary education, so they can be successful in what they choose to do."</p><p>On high school expectations vs. college expectations: "We recently attended a meeting at Longview Community College to look at our data and their data and see how successful or unsuccessful certain groups of students have been. I think from district to district and from university to university that alignment probably varies. But I think our high school, our guidance counselors and our teachers have a pretty good understanding of what it takes to be successful at that next level."</p><p><strong><span class="subhead">Keeping focus on the goals</span></strong></p><p>Steve Shelton, executive director of secondary education for the Raytown School District.</p><p>His challenge: Raise ACT scores and prepare an economically diverse student body for college and careers.</p><p>His focus: Infuse more rigor and ACT concepts into courses, especially math and sciences; offer free ACT prep classes.</p><p>On preparing all students to succeed beyond high school: "It begins in the eighth grade. We ask students to look down the road, and to think about what they&#8217;re going to do and what education they&#8217;ll need to attain that goal. We counsel them to take the most rigorous courses that would lead them down that career path. And then, along the way, we ask them to re-evaluate what they&#8217;re doing in classes, and if it&#8217;s helping to reach that goal."