It will change only when power relationships change, particularly when all parents gain the power to decide where their children go to school. The stakes could not be higher. What is at stake is America's ability to provide all its daughters and sons with necessary skills and knowledge, with environments for learning that are safe for children and teachers, with schools in which every teacher is excellent and learning is central. But even more is at stake than our future prosperity. Despite this country's mostly admirable utilitarianism when it comes to education, good education is not just about readiness.
Test scores are important, but so are standards and excellence in our society.
In the last decade of this American Century, we must not be content with anything less than the best for all the children. Hot Topics Series. U.S. Department of Education. The opinions expressed in this report do not necessarily reflect the positions or policies of OERI or the U.S. Department of Education.