Unlike most other developed countries, the US does not have national academic standards outlining what each student must learn to graduate from high school. In fact, it is the opposite, with each of the 50 states setting the bar wherever it wants – and, in many states, that is too low.
When standards in one state are lower than those in another, longstanding inequities are perpetuated every September as new groups of kindergarteners take their first steps into school. With US 15-year-
olds ranked 25th among 30 industrialised nations on the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's international mathematics exam and 24th in science, the time has come to put aside ideology in favour of the next generation's ability to compete globally.