I agree, those things are contradictory. I'd go one step further as well. We can't evaluate how well we (US) are at meeting standards if we're not all looking at success as a consistent end product. We just list standards and say, "meet them".
I think part of the issue is that we all look at success differently (and that is natural). Personally, I think of success as a product of the means that is "education" as being an active member in the economy, e.g. to go and get a job and pay it (education) forward through income tax.
But others look at success as college attainment, which skews data and, in some cases, creates inefficiencies in our economy (landing students in massive debt, starving them of 4 years of wages and experience, pushing them down an alternate career path).
Depending on where you stand, success is evaluated in different ways which really has an impact on what the best educational software design should be.
IMHO, the internet is the ultimate educational tool (because it's the doorway to 1000s of tools). The issue is that educational software is almost always designed to limit access to that material, which I think is a bummer for students today. Sure there are areas of the net that have no educational value. But there are other areas that schools automatically shutoff (blogger, wordpress, youtube, etc.) that represent enormous collections of information.
I think part of the issue is that we all look at success differently (and that is natural). Personally, I think of success as a product of the means that is "education" as being an active member in the economy, e.g. to go and get a job and pay it (education) forward through income tax.
But others look at success as college attainment, which skews data and, in some cases, creates inefficiencies in our economy (landing students in massive debt, starving them of 4 years of wages and experience, pushing them down an alternate career path).
Depending on where you stand, success is evaluated in different ways which really has an impact on what the best educational software design should be.
IMHO, the internet is the ultimate educational tool (because it's the doorway to 1000s of tools). The issue is that educational software is almost always designed to limit access to that material, which I think is a bummer for students today. Sure there are areas of the net that have no educational value. But there are other areas that schools automatically shutoff (blogger, wordpress, youtube, etc.) that represent enormous collections of information.