they shoot heros, don't they
artical from The Oregonian:
Bill Gates tells a gathering of goveners that schools are not preparing students for college or technical jobs
WASHINGTON - addresing the nation's governors, microsoft co-founder Bill Gates delivered a scathing crituque of U.S. highschools saturday, calling them "obsolete" and saying that elected officals should be "ashamed" of a system that leaves millions of students unprepared for college and technical jobs.
Gates was speaking as a invited guest of some of the nation's most powerful elected officals, at a national governors assosiation meeting devoted to improving highschool education across the country.
"training the work force of tomorrow with today's highschool is like trying to teach kids about computers on a 50-year old main-frame." said Gates, whose $27 billion Bill and Melinda Gates foundation has made u.s education one of its main prioroties.
"everyone who understands the importance of education, everyone who beileves in equal opportunity, everyone who has been elected yo uphold the obligations of the public office, should be ashamed that we are breaking out promises of a free education for millions of students." added Gates, to strong applause.
Virginia Gov. Mark Warner, chairman of the nonpartisan association, said highschool is in a need of a overhaul to raise standards and to closely align instruction with the requirements of colleges and employers.
"it is imparitive that we make the american high school and national priority." said Warner, a democrate.
the govener's meeting coincides with a push by president Bush to extend elements of his No Child Left Behind initiave from primary grades to the highschool level.
the governers painted a dire picture od the state of the public high schools, realeasing statisics that show only 68 percent of 9th graders graduate from high school on time.
but, measuring a different wat, u.s. government statistics show steady increases in highschool gradeuation rates, paticularly amoung whites and blacks, altough less so for latinos.
"only a fraction of out kids are getting the best education." Gates said "once we realize that we are keeping low-income and minority kids out of the rigorous courses, there can only be two arguments for keeping it that way: either we think they can't learn, or we think they're not worth teaching.
"the first argument would be factually wrong." he added "the second would be morally wrong."
Gates said his fondation had contributed nearly $1 billion to improve the quality of u.s. education and was supporting reforms at more that 1,500 high schools
his involvment began with a college scholarship program for minority students. then he and his wife realized many of the students they were sponsering did not have the academic skills to survive in college.
"the more we looked at 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 theres 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 call for a get-tough approach toward school 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 ecperts who are given the power and resources to turn things around." he said.
i knew my idiocy wasn't just all me. ha.
Bill Gates tells a gathering of goveners that schools are not preparing students for college or technical jobs
WASHINGTON - addresing the nation's governors, microsoft co-founder Bill Gates delivered a scathing crituque of U.S. highschools saturday, calling them "obsolete" and saying that elected officals should be "ashamed" of a system that leaves millions of students unprepared for college and technical jobs.
Gates was speaking as a invited guest of some of the nation's most powerful elected officals, at a national governors assosiation meeting devoted to improving highschool education across the country.
"training the work force of tomorrow with today's highschool is like trying to teach kids about computers on a 50-year old main-frame." said Gates, whose $27 billion Bill and Melinda Gates foundation has made u.s education one of its main prioroties.
"everyone who understands the importance of education, everyone who beileves in equal opportunity, everyone who has been elected yo uphold the obligations of the public office, should be ashamed that we are breaking out promises of a free education for millions of students." added Gates, to strong applause.
Virginia Gov. Mark Warner, chairman of the nonpartisan association, said highschool is in a need of a overhaul to raise standards and to closely align instruction with the requirements of colleges and employers.
"it is imparitive that we make the american high school and national priority." said Warner, a democrate.
the govener's meeting coincides with a push by president Bush to extend elements of his No Child Left Behind initiave from primary grades to the highschool level.
the governers painted a dire picture od the state of the public high schools, realeasing statisics that show only 68 percent of 9th graders graduate from high school on time.
but, measuring a different wat, u.s. government statistics show steady increases in highschool gradeuation rates, paticularly amoung whites and blacks, altough less so for latinos.
"only a fraction of out kids are getting the best education." Gates said "once we realize that we are keeping low-income and minority kids out of the rigorous courses, there can only be two arguments for keeping it that way: either we think they can't learn, or we think they're not worth teaching.
"the first argument would be factually wrong." he added "the second would be morally wrong."
Gates said his fondation had contributed nearly $1 billion to improve the quality of u.s. education and was supporting reforms at more that 1,500 high schools
his involvment began with a college scholarship program for minority students. then he and his wife realized many of the students they were sponsering did not have the academic skills to survive in college.
"the more we looked at 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 theres 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 call for a get-tough approach toward school 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 ecperts who are given the power and resources to turn things around." he said.
i knew my idiocy wasn't just all me. ha.