Unexpected Error Found In High School Educations---System Shutdown in Progress

Bill Gates isn't getting much for the money he donated to education:

The governors painted a dire picture of the state of public high schools, releasing statistics that, according to the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, showed 68% of ninth-graders graduate from high school on time.

But, measuring a different way, U.S. government statistics show steady increases in high school graduation rates, particularly among whites and African Americans, although less so for Latinos.

For example, the high school graduation rate for adults 25 years or older was at an all-time high of 85% in 2003, as was the 27% share of adults holding at least a bachelor's degree.

Behind the national numbers, there is general agreement that wide disparities exist among high schools and that geography, income, race and ethnicity affect the value of a diploma.

Of course, there's a major fallacy here the educats invariably like to inject: we educate people to do things, not to be things. The value of a diploma has nothing whatsoever to do with geography, income, race, or ethnicity---it's what you can do with the skills you've mastered on your way to the diploma.

It does no good to crank out more diplomas if those diplomas don't truly signify an ability to work and contribute in some significant way to society. That's the "Do" part of the "Know-Do" loop. And that's where high schools are failing, according to Gates:

His involvement began with a college scholarship program for minority students. But then he and his wife realized many of the students they were sponsoring did not have the academic skills to survive in college.

"The more we looked at the data, the more we came to see that there is more than one barrier to college," Gates said. "There's the barrier of not being able to pay for college, but there's the barrier of not being prepared for college."

Gates called for a new design for American high schools, based on smaller schools with higher standards for math and language proficiency, instruction that is relevant to students' goals in life and better support from teachers and counselors.

He also called for a get-tough approach toward schools that fail.

"When the students don't learn, the school must change," Gates said. "Every state needs a strong intervention strategy to improve struggling schools."

"This needs to include special teams of experts who are given the power and resources to turn things around," he said.

Do you think Microsoft's technical support is a wonderful innovation? That's what Gates is pushing for schools: teams of empowered experts to intervene with failing schools.

A better strategy is the one most of us turn to when Microsoft's products fail: shut down and reboot.