Chaper 2: The Global Achievement Gap

Five things I learned:

When Newsweek creates a list of the best high schools in America, all it looks at is the percentage of students taking the rapidly growing AP programs.

Only 10% of students play varsity sports.

The Department of Defense runs it's own school system.

In one school:

5th graders spent more than 90 percent of their time in their seats listening to the teacher or working alone and only about 7 percent or their time working in groups. Findings were similar in 1st and 3rd grade.

In 5th grade, more than 60 percent of students' time was spent on improving basic literacy or math skills, while less than 25 percent of their time was devoted to science and social studies.