The Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE), on behalf of career and technical education (CTE) professionals in the United States, advocates for clearly focusing American high schools on the goal of preparing every student for full participation in a spectrum of college opportunities, meaningful work, career advancement, and active citizenship. Leaders are called upon to make needed changes in school culture, instructional strategies and organizational priorities that will support this new purpose. The people at ACTE strongly believe that CTE courses and instructional methodologies have an important place in the redesigned high school of the 21st century. In their view, there should no longer be an artificial split between academic coursework and CTE studies, nor should exposure to career- or interest-based coursework be delayed until late in high school or college. Rather, they believe that all coursework, with clearly articulated standards and expectations, can help build in students the mix of skills, aptitudes and attitudes they will need for success after high school. This paper reviews the challenges and current efforts in high school redesign, and offers a number of recommendations about what elements should be included in the efforts to reinvent the American high school for the 21st century. (Contains 26 endnotes.)