Disagrees with Harold Stevenson's article in same "Educational Leadership" issue; Stevenson compares incomparable groups of students and misinterprets data. Although U.S. students rate ability higher than Chinese students, they also appreciate value of effort. Chicago kids are poorer and come from larger families than their Chinese…

Excoriates Gerald Bracey's "broadsides" against the author's own article in same "Educational Leadership" issue for misinterpreting his conclusions and methodology. Stevenson's learning gap results did not oversimplify ability-effort relationship in U.S. and Asian students; results were similar for U.S. cities with both large…

Recent research shows that an achievement gap exists between U.S. and Asian students. One reason is that U.S. students, their parents, and their teachers maintain unnecessarily lower performance standards than their Chinese and Japanese counterparts. Even with higher standards, longer school days, and new curricula, academic achievement will not…