We all have to have more rigorous expectations of our kids in America.

If a country puts its entire focus on making sure that the education system improves, then that's the kind of progress that you can see.

We've lost our competitive spirit. We've become so obsessed with making kids feel good about themselves that we've lost sight of building the skills they need to actually be good at things.

In schools where parent involvement is greater, you do have higher achievement levels and better functioning, better performing schools.

The reality in Washington D.C. is if you live in Tenleytown versus if you live in Anacostia, you get two wildly different educational experiences. It’s the biggest social injustice imaginable. What we are allowing to happen in this day and age, we are still allowing the color of a child’s skin and the Zip code they live in to dictate their educational outcome, and therefore their life outcome. We are robbing them every single day of their futures. And everybody in this country should be infuriated by that.

If you grew up in a lower-income community, or less well-off, the belief is that the way to change that circumstance is through education.

We all have to have more rigorous expectations of our kids in America.