Is There a Difference Between High School and College?

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In three years in the secondary schools, middle and high schools, we close the racial achievement gap in math and cut it by a third. In five years, we did the same thing in the elementary schools. For our high schools, every single people would admit that to a two or four year college. And this is 20,000, 30,000 kids. Half of them didn't go. That's okay. The adults in the building should make that choice for them. Give them opportunities and then they can make their choice.

The good news about educational reform, says Harvard economist Roland Fryer, is that we know what it takes to turn a school around. The bad news is that it's hard work--and implementing it won't win you any popularity contests. Listen as the MacArthur Genius Award Winner and John Bates Clark medalist speaks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about how pizza parties revealed the potential of incentives to improve students' test scores, and why he's far more concerned about closing the racial achievement gap than keeping the love of learning pure. He also discusses the five best practices of successful schools, and why it's his failures far more than his successes that keep him in this fight.