Historians of education have documented a profound change in the expectations Americans have for their schools (Graham, 1992). Recent dissatisfaction with American education may be due as much to these changing expectations as to any decline in the quality of schools. Now, for the first time in our history, we are concerned with achievement, not just attainment. Whereas previously we judged the quality of our nation's schools according to what percentage of students attended them, we are now concerned that our students learn something in school. Also for the first time in our history, we expect schools to play a major role in the achievement of social justice. Whereas previously we were satisfied if our elite received an education of the highest quality, we are now concerned with fairness: that children from all social, ethnic, and economic backgrounds have the opportunity to achieve academically. America's goals for education in the 1990s can be summed up as high achievement for all students.

Although these goals may be relatively recent in the United States, they correspond closely with the goals of Japan's educational system. Indeed, our new admiration for Japan's educational successes may be partly due to the new hopes we have for our system of education. In previous work done in collaboration with Harold Stevenson and his research group at the University of Michigan, we documented the extent to which Japan achieves these newfound American goals.