(snip)""America's high schools are obsolete," Gates said. "By obsolete, I don't just mean that they're broken, flawed or underfunded, though a case could be made for every one of those points. By obsolete, I mean our high schools _ even when they're working as designed _ cannot teach all our students what they need to know today."
Summit leaders have an ambitious agenda for every state: to raise the requirements of a high school diploma, improve information sharing between high schools and universities, and align graduation standards with the expectations of colleges and employers. Governors say they're in a position to unite the often splintered agendas of business leaders, educators and legislatures.
But such changes will take what Gates singled out as the biggest obstacle: political will. (emphasis added)
Requiring tougher courses for all students, for example, could face opposition from parents and school officials, particularly if more rigor leads to lower test scores and costly training. "(snip)
It's about time that this subject has been addressed by some prominent Democrats as well as Republicans ! Things should get really interesting if some of the following issues finally come up for discussion ...
- ineffective but currently unfireable tenured teachers
- politically correct but arguably irrelevant curriculums
- abandonment of social promotion in favor of actually passing exams
- effectively disciplining disruptive students
- expelling chronically disruptive students
- correctly categorizing and separately teaching 'slow' students so that normal students educational progress isn't bogged down by the slowest common denominator




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