They are, instead, in the middle of a tightly packed group of developed countries. The image of Washington area schools suffers from similar distortions. Washington Post stories, including some written by me, invariably mention that most schools in Virginia have failed to reach state targets on the Standards of Learning tests. Yet most Virginia children have passed the tests, and their success rate has jumped from 56.4 percent to 68.4 percent in just three years. Scores on the Stanford 9 test in the District are also up.
American schools can be much better than they are.
Parents should have more choices. But looking for the negative in every report and mentioning the positive only under duress is not the best way to bring needed improvements. Good people sometimes say bad things about public schools for what they consider good reasons. Educators who have struggled to get more help for the urban and rural schools whose test scores have stagnated find they only make headway when they suggest that suburban schools are also in trouble. Bad news, true or not, gets the attention of governors and legislators.