On a deeper level, there are the ever-present concerns that come from educators over the manner in which our students are taught how to think. The disagreement, here, is not just on what the main concern over the educational system is. The disagreement is on the goals of education itself. A concern over math and science test scores, for example, most likely comes from a belief that a goal of education is to ensure that superiority of the country over others. While this is certainly an important concern, it is not something that is on the mind of the average educator from day to day.
Different goals result in different feelings about the design of the educational system.
The surface concerns are being attacked with surface solutions such as increased standardized testing and accountability, both for students and for teachers. The idea here being that weak students will have to repeat classes and weak teachers will be re-educated or removed from the system entirely. The deeper concerns over learning, however, are being looked at through the lens of educational philosophy and research, which gives educators insight into the best conditions necessary to promote thinking and learning. New curriculum models are then developed in accordance with such theory and research. These two very different goals and their different solutions don't always mix.