ABSTRACT
The chapter begins with a discussion of the importance of the eight competences to preserving American democracy. This is followed by a summary of a key idea from the rest of the book, that assuring that all children master the eight competences requires redundancy of learning opportunities. A brief discussion of charters emphasizes that charters will work best if they are not designed to fully replicate public schools but are assessed by a common approach so that their successes and failures can be compared to those of public systems. The chapter emphasizes that charters as they exist today do not provide the level of redundancy of learning opportunities that will be needed, since they tend to emulate public schooling in their methods. There also is a discussion of the need for better data to guide advising of students about learning opportunities in and out of school. Finally, the chapter emphasizes the importance of major investment now to shift the hidden curriculum and expresses confidence that this level of change is possible as well as necessary.
