May 15, 2018
America’s K-12 education system and institutions were designed in a
different era for a different society, and we are at grave risk
today from this obsolete system, which fails to
prepare all children to succeed as adults. In fact, the
system we have now was never designed or intended to reach all
children.
Look into a classroom and it looks pretty much the same way it
looked in the 19th century.
The results have been catastrophic. According to the National
Assessment of Educational Progress, two-thirds of all students fail
to meet grade-level proficiency in any subject. Not math. Not
civics. Not reading, history or geography. The numbers are
far worse for minority students, of whom only one in six are
meeting grade-level proficiency.
It’s obviously long past time we did something about it, but why is
it so hard to change things and what changes would actually work to
prepare every single student for a career they can be passionate
about?
For answers, I turned to Center for Education Reform President
Jeanne Allen and my wife, Sarah, who served as CEO of Language
Odyssey, an education venture we created together to provide
Spanish and French language programs at schools around the
country.
Join us as we explore ideas such as rewarding competency over
numbers, inspiring young people’s academic passions online and in
the school curriculum, and doing our best to make sure the best
possible teacher is in every classroom.