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A report from the Southern Governors Association recommends that the region鈥檚 leaders begin a new focus on improving high schools, especially smaller schools in rural areas.

鈥淣ew Traditions: Options for Rural High School Excellence鈥� is scheduled to be available from the .

The report, financed by a grant from the Seattle-based Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, urges governors to form statewide commissions on high school improvement, give more visibility to upgrading education at the secondary level, and emphasize such policy areas as dropout prevention and school leadership.

鈥淒emocratic governors, Republican governors are saying 鈥� we鈥檝e got to really pay attention to our public schools in the South, because the vitality of our communities and the vitality of our economy really depends on it,鈥� said Ferrel Guillory, a North Carolina journalist and scholar who wrote the report for the Washington-based SGA.

The SGA partnered with the Atlanta-based Southern Regional Education Board and the Rural School and Community Trust, based in Arlington, Va., to visit successful high school programs in Maine, Mississippi, New York, and North Carolina and collect information for the report.

The report was scheduled to be released Sept. 13 at the Southern governors鈥� annual meeting, in Richmond, Va. Governors and their advisers were expected to discuss the report and its implications.

Examples of Progress

Governors in several states are preparing major policy proposals on high school improvement for 2005. They are drawing from the report to develop 鈥渁 statewide vision for high schools,鈥� said Elizabeth G. Schneider, the executive director of the Washington-based SGA.

For example, Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco of Louisiana, a Democrat, is joining with her state鈥檚 K-12 and higher education boards to create a high school redesign commission that will begin work next month.

The initiative could lead to more innovation and higher numbers of high school graduates who leave school with strong skills, said Donna Nola- Ganey, Louisiana鈥檚 assistant state superintendent for school and community support.

In compiling the report, visitors from nine SGA member states saw ideas they hope can be translated into promising practices in their own states. After the visits, representatives from many of the association鈥檚 16 member states and two U.S. territories met to discuss what they saw.

At rural Swain County High School in Bryson City, N.C., visitors found a school where students use technology to study and present information about their community鈥檚 history. A career-oriented class on drafting was combined with a geometry class to help students see the links between the subjects, Mr. Guillory said.

In Mississippi, visitors found a principal at Shaw High School in the Delta region who took the time to help each student set goals for college or work. The principal鈥檚 effort is credited with raising test scores and graduation rates, said Lee Stevens, the SGA鈥檚 legislative director for education, health, and human services.

Shaw High鈥檚 remote location didn鈥檛 prevent the school from hiring good teachers, as the school helps teachers earn their master鈥檚 degrees while working, Ms. Schneider said.

Visitors also examined the formation of small learning communities within large campuses at the Julia Richman Education Complex in New York City, and they visited Poland Regional High School in Poland, Maine.

Ms. Schneider said she hopes the effort will help state leaders improve high schools across the South, and inspire more interest and funding from the Gates Foundation.

鈥淲e are hoping that this will open the door for further experimentation and for their support of further projects in the South, particularly in rural areas,鈥� she said.

Better rural high schools mean better futures for the region鈥檚 people, said Mr. Guillory. He directs the Southern politics, media, and public-life program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill journalism school and is a senior fellow for a Chapel Hill-based nonprofit research firm, MDC Inc.

鈥淲e know in the South that we鈥檝e got to align our schools with the demands of the new economy,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 have anybody to waste.鈥�