To improve speech communication education at the secondary school level, high school and college teachers must focus attention on speaking and listening content and on research having direct applications to speech instruction. Three approaches to curriculum planning have weakened secondary school level speech programs: the popularization of minicourses to the detriment of a basic skills foundation; the tendency among new instructors to present what they learned in college, with little attention to student needs; and teacher determination of the curriculum without objective criteria. To improve the secondary school speech curriculum, high school and college instructors must collaborate. Methods of building this collaboration include establishing partnerships between college speech departments and local high school programs that focus on student needs, the application of research to those needs, and the improvement of instruction. In addition to giving preservice speech and language arts teachers the confidence and knowledge to teach secondary school speech education effectively, colleges can recognize outstanding high school speech programs, teachers, and students. (MM)