American High school students are falling acdemically farther behind their international counterparts. It’s not the fault of achievement in the lower grades (we are told). And by the way, the smaller schools initiative won’t solve the problem either. This announcement from Microsoft’s Bill Gates, despite the fact that he is famously funding lots of activity in the small schools direction. Most of those projects are just getting underway. Too bad. Have no great expectations there, says Bill.

So what’s up? Just about every possible villain has been proposed to explain/excuse American educational deficiencies. Maybe our problem is that we can’t seem to settle on a villain, just one villain or scapegoat, and stick with it. The only untried excuses so far seem to be “American kids are /lazy/stupid/drugged into mindlessness.” It seems unfair, frankly, that these have not been given a fair shot in the debate thus far.

This article from the Teacher’s College Record is typical of how we identify the source of educational problems in America today. It was written by a teacher, for teachers.

In essence, it offers the following wisdom: “It’s Just Our Bringin’ Upke”–or one of a hundred other randomly selected possibilities.”

With this, they have published in a peer-refereed journal. Now there’s an insight.