The "Portrait of a Graduate" fad is likely to be "so vague and insipid that they create a permission structure for schools to prioritize most everything except academics and to excuse themselves when they fail at their responsibility to teach even basic literacy and numeracy,"

Everyone says they value a rigorous education -- but many don't want to do the work.

Schools that help disadvantaged students achieve focus on consistently good teaching, a strong, shared curriculum and lots of collaboration.