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
to math education, says khan, is that students carry on gaps in their knowledge throughout their math careers. making it hard to get the more advanced concepts. the key to overcoming that problem is to let students learn at their own pace. khan academy offers students a quiz after each video, and they can t pass a level until they get ten out of ten questions right. let everyone learn at their own pace. only move on to a concept once they ve gotten to a certain level of proficiency or a mastery on a base level. if we let students learn at their own pace, what does that do to the traditional classroom model? it s turned upsidedown. which is exactly what we need to do. last fall, los altos, california, agreed to use khan academy in five classrooms. show me what that looks like as a number. kami thordarson allowed her students to experiment with the program to see what it could
math careers. making it hard to get the more advanced concepts. the key to overcoming that problem is to let students learn at their own pace. khan academy offers students a quiz after each video, and they can t pass a level until they get ten out of ten questions right. let everyone learn at their own pace. only move on to a concept once they ve gotten to a certain level of proficiency or mastery on a base level. so that their tool kit is strong for that more advanced thing. if we let students learn at their own pace, what does that do to the traditional classroom model? it s turned upsidedown. which is exactly what we need to do. last fall, los altos, california, agreed to use khan academy in five classrooms. show me what that looks like as a number. kami thordarson allowed her students to experiment with the program to see what it could offer. we saw kids exploring areas that we didn t know they could. i mean, it was it was
the key to overcoming that problem is to let students learn at their own pace. khan academy offers students a quiz after each video, and they can t pass a level until they get ten out of ten questions right. let everyone learn at their own pace. only move on to a concept once they ve gotten to a certain level of proficiency or mastery on a base level. so that their tool kit is strong for that more advanced thing. if we let students learn at their own pace, what does that do to the traditional classroom model? it s turned upsidedown. which is exactly what we need to do. last fall, los altos, california, agreed to use khan academy in five classrooms. show me what that looks like as a number. kami thordarson allowed her students to experiment with the program to see what it could offer. we saw kids exploring areas that we didn t know they could. i mean, it was it was surprising to them and to us the levels that they were reaching. and it was fascinating just to
been michelle rhee, the former chancellor of washington, d.c. s, public school system, one of the nation s worst performing school districts at the time she took over. in 2007 the education world went into a frenzy over the possibility that michelle rhee could actually turn around the school district. featured in the lightning rod documentary waiting for superman rhee turned the school system upsidedown, firing dozens of schoolteachers and closing 27 schools. you famously clashed with the unions while you were in office. do you think still in retrospect and looking forward, are teachers unions are a fundamental problem to educational reform? well, i think that teachers unions, but more specifically the contracts, the collective bargaining agreements that dictate a lot of the policies in school districts are extraordinarily problematic. one of the policies rhee has been fighting has to do with seniority.