100 representative American Kids entering high school. What does fate have in store for them . 25 out of that 100 wont graduate from high school. A total of 50 wont go to college. Thats half the class that wont go on to higher education. 50 will attend college, but only 22 will graduate within six years. Meanwhi meanwhile, other countries are outstarting us. On a recent international test, u. S. Students ranked only 15th in the world in reading, 23rd in science and 31st in math. Overall, the World Economic forum ranks the quality of our education at 26th. Whats odd is that weve been outspending most developed countries by a long shot. In 2007, we spent over 10,000 per student versus the 7,400 average for rich countries. How can we spend so much money and have so little to show for it . Well ask that question and others to some of the leading figures in American Education here on this special essay. Well examine the role of teachers, testing ands technology. And we ask the man who spent
he thinks that teachers should be measured on their students test scores. i think this is profoundly wrong. what he ll discover is that many teachers will be fired. test scores may go up, but students won t be better educated. we re going to send more money, more resources. ravitch used to be a big fan of testing, supporting the no child left behind measure passed by president bush who made it the law of the land. after a decade of tests, ravitch has changed her tune. i thought, i m wrong. and that shocked a lot of people. ravitch notes that their importance has led test obsessed school districts to cut programs like the arts that actually foster real creativity. i ve seen many articles of how a child wants to somehow break free of the lockstep approach to standardized instruction and standardized testing. we, on the other hand, seem to be rushing towards the model that they are trying to shake free of. i ve heard people say, you
educated. we re going to send more money, more resources. ravitch used to be a big fan of testing, supporting the no child left behind measure passed by president bush. which made testing the law of the land. after a decade of tests, ravitch has changed her tune. i thought, i m wrong. and that shocked a lot of people. ravitch notes that their importance has led test obsessed school districts to cut programs like the arts that foster real creative. i ve seen many articles of how a child wants to somehow break free of the lockstep approach to standardized instruction and standardized testing. we, on the other hand, seem to be rushing towards the model that they are trying to shake free of. i ve heard people say, you know, the american system needs
ravitch used to be a big fan of testing, supporting the no child left behind measure passed by president bush. which made testinghe law of the land. after a decade of tests, ravitch has changed her tune. i thought, i m wrong. and that shocked a lot of people. ravitch notes that their importance has led test obsessed school districts to cut programs like the arts that foster real creative. i ve seen many articles of how a child wants to somehow break free of the lockstep approach to standardized instruction and standardized testing. we, on the other hand, seem to be rushing towards the model that they are trying to shake free of. i ve heard people say, you know, the american system needs to be one which encourages people to be curious, adventurous, taking risks, not this sort of style system where
in 2007 we spent over $10,000 per student. versus the $7,400 average for rich countries. how can we spend so much money and have so little to show for it? we ll ask that question and others to some of the leading figures in american education. here on this special and in a time essay. we ll examine the roll of teachers, testing and technology and we ll ask the man who spend billions of dollars trying to fix education about how he s spending his money, microsoft founder and philanthropist, bill gates. first, there are two nations whose students consistently rank on top of the world. south korea and finland. what is their secret? we ll take you there and show you how they get their impressive results with completely opposite approaches. let s get started. welcome to seoul, south california korea. there are many reasons to be impressed with this. ancient tiger that rose from the ashes of the civil war. but south korea s crown jewel is its education system. thanks to a militant