How do we make our schools better? The experts speak out: Richard Colvin asked five leading education experts for their ideas on improving American education.

SUSAN H. FUHRMAN DEAN GRADUATE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA:

"There are no magic bullets. I'd like to see us focusing much less on structure--much less on charter schools or choice or other kinds of structural solutions--and just pay attention to the deep issue of teacher quality and instructional improvement. We've got to make instruction better. We need better teachers, better materials, better curricula and more equitable distribution of those. I really object to the word 'reform.' We don't need to 'reform' education because we're always changing the form. We need to just focus on instruction and work steadily to improve it."

HOWARD FULLER FOUNDER AND DIRECTOR INSTITUTE FOR THE TRANSFORMATION OF LEARNING MARQUETTE UNIVERSITY:

"Each of the critical reforms have added value--the standards movement, focusing on results and No Child Left Behind--making sure we look at these results not just in the aggregate, but for different groups. Those reforms are all heading in the right direction. Closing the achievement gap remains one of the major problems of our democracy. As a supporter of choice, one of the things I hope happens is that we will have more options for low-income and working class parents. That these parents have some of the same choices that people with more money have, whether it's through vouchers or charter schools or contract schools or open enrollment. But even as you provide options, the goal has to be to provide quality options. So the focus of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation on creating small schools holds promise. But just being small is not enough. The schools have to be different. There are a number of models that hold promise for reaching high school kids--whether it's the Big Picture Company's Met schools or Edvisions or the High Tech High School in San Diego. I'm still in a pessimistic state of mind about what's happening to kids. But I'm at least optimistic that it's on the national agenda. And I give the president and others credit for that, for keeping this out in front of us."

EUGENE GARCIA DEAN COLLEGE OF EDUCATION ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY:

"I'm putting my hopes on the courts, and there are promising cases in the South, in Tennessee, Kentucky and in California. The major tenets of reform standards, accountability, school-based decision making--have had almost no influence in raising academic achievement for those students whom these reforms were supposed to assist. In California and...