This report concerns the corruption of the University of California by activist politics, a condition which, as it shall show, sharply lowers the quality of academic teaching, analysis, and research, resulting in the troubling deficiencies found in the studies to which the authors have referred. This report shall show that this is an inevitable…

The problem of student ignorance is really about adult ignorance of how to achieve thoughtful and long-lasting understanding. We will not escape our predominantly medieval view of curriculum, premised on knowledge as static and finite, until education learns the lessons of modern intellectual inquiry. Curricula should be organized around essential…

Instead of being devices for measuring what students have learned, tests should be instructional--the central vehicle for clarifying and setting intellectual standards. To regain control over testing and instruction, schools need to rethink their diploma requirements and grading systems. Then school transcripts will become trustworthy again.…

The current standards movement cannot succeed unless a school's culture is committed to helping all students achieve excellence. Principals must build a schoolwide culture of quality focused on learning projects. Teachers should design projects backwards, using standards and assessment rubrics based on actual student products and performances.…

Students who learn more geography have a dual payoff: intellectual challenge through the introduction of new, stimulating information about people, places, and regions; and exposure to career possibilities that did not exist even five years ago. The 18 national geography standards stress a spatial world view, places and regions, physical and human…