What Is the Matter with America's Schools?

For more than three decades, education policymakers and researchers have complained about America’s middling rank in international comparisons of academic achievement, but ignored or failed to address the main issue: the profound achievement gaps between racial and ethnic groups. If the U.S. closed the gaps, it would be world class in reading, mathematics, and science. In this lecture, Robert Hauser examines policies that have succeeded in closing educational achievement gaps.Robert Hauser is Executive Officer of the American Philosophical Society. He is Vilas Research Professor and Samuel Stouffer Professor of Sociology, Emeritus, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.