The role of the high school has changeddramatically over the past century. It has e-volved from an institution designed to serveonly a few, privileged students to one thatserves as a gateway——for all students——toboth postsecondary education and the work-place. But as late as the 1940s, access to ahigh school education remained limited inmany rural areas of the nation, and it wasn'tuntil the civil-rights movement of the 1960sthat the first generation of African Amcri-cans had universal access to a public highschool education. ......