We Need School Reform—and Soon!

Abstract

This book was written as much for myself as for anyone else. For almost a decade before beginning it, I had been fighting a gnawing belief that education in America—particularly elementary and secondary educa-tion—was in a death spiral that would inevitably lead to disaster. I was spending several weeks each year working with colleges in various parts of the country that were struggling against the effects of a failing system, and were desperate to find ways to make up for those deficiencies. But the evidence was everywhere and was irrefutable. Thousands of young people were graduating from high school seriously underprepared for both work and further education. Some were awarded high school diplomas that were indistinguishable from the class valedictorians, but were based on the student having met the requirements of an Individual Educational Plan (IEP) that was purely behavior-based, and did not require mastery of any body of knowledge. Worse still, a quarter of ninth graders were not finishing school with their classes at all, and of those who did graduate, a high percentage was deficient in reading, math, and English skills. Many who entered college did not survive the first year—in an economy where we were being told that 90 percent of the fastest growing jobs in America required some additional education beyond high school.¹

If we continue on our current course, and the number of nations outpacing us in the education race continues to grow at its current rate, the American standard of living will steadily fall relative to those nations, rich and poor, that are doing a better job.

—Tough Choices or Tough Times. p. xix