Are American schools in better shape than we think?

There are plenty of recent media reports about the failing American education system: low test scores, poor graduation rates and the need for reform. But many reports show that students are actually performing and graduating at higher rates than ever before. Where's the disconnect?

Reporter Paul Farhi argues that poor media coverage and sweeping generalizations about American schools are presenting a false picture that may have negative effects for our education system.

"By many important measures - high school completion rates, college graduation, overall performance on standardized tests - America's educational attainment has never been higher," Farhi wrote in his recent American Journalism Review article.

Farhi will join The Daily Circuit Thursday to discuss America's education system.

"My own gut philosophy is there are a million different problems and a million things going very well [in our schools]," he said. "If you solve big problems you've only pushed the needle up one to two percent. There are too many things, too many moving parts and so incremental improvement is the best we can hope for."

Tom Loveless, senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institute, will also join the discussion.

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