Colloquium Provocation Paper: Restoring Our Schools

With low and downward-trending international rankings in academic achieviement, the United States is failing badly in its goal to educate all of its citizens to meet 21st Century demands. In addition, increasing segregation of schools and inequality in funding in many states over the past two decades, are leaving a growing share of African-American and Hispanic students in highly segregated schools that lack qualified teachers and quality resources. This paper addresses current U.S. policy and examines ways to address these disparities in opportunity for U.S. students, looking at what high achieving nations do and what successful approaches have worked in the past in the United States.

(This article was previously published on The Nation on May 27, 2010.)