What would I do to the US system? Make it similar to the UK's!
Introduce a leaderboard system, so the best schools (rated on academic performance, Ofsted inspections, etc) get awards, whilst the worst performing schools get extra funding to push them up.
This system does has its drawbacks - it provides extra support for the top 50% and the bottom 25% of students as the schools want to push their performance, but the middle 25% get ignored - this can be tackled with greater regulation, and more funding, however - both of which are happening (they've just hit the backburner for a while, because of other issues like the recession, and stuff).
But, even with its flaws, the UK's system has come up leaps and bounds since the inception of the leaderboards, just look at our progress in maths in the past few years:
MATHS RANKING 1995-2007
England's secondary pupils
1995: 25th place
1999: 20th place
2003: 18th place
2007: 7th place
Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7773081.stm
Existing User Log In
New User Registration
Register for a free account to gain full access to the VGChartz Network and join our thriving community.
