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There is a sense of great urgency in the way Obama administration and Congress is dealing with higher education. They want instant transformation of American schools for the better, of course. They want our country to go back right to the top instantly. There is no realism in the approach that basically ignores common sense and evidence.

Our nation is so huge and we have let it slide for decades now. The recent economic turndown has just furthered what was already initiated a long time ago. For years, we have neglected our quality of teaching. It is certainly not possible to wake up all of a sudden and try to restore American education to its original glory.

So, what do we do? How do we go about it in the right manner? Today colleges and universities are hugely limited by budget constraints. This in turn is passed on to the students who find it a burden to continue their studies. Amidst all this, there are efforts going on to enhance graduation rates.

Teachers are being pressurized to perform and an increasing number of them are understandably revolting. They are forced to accept evaluation based on student test performance adding to their woes.

Recently there is a bid to re-authorize Elementary and Secondary Education Act by Senate Democrats. Tom Harkin of Iowa, the Senate Education Committee chairman and Democratic Senator, through his recently drafted bill, aims at providing relief to states from having to meet achievement goals in reading and math.

This bill will encourage schools to show continuous improvement rather than making frantic efforts to make all students college ready by 2020 as proposed by the Obama administration or to ensure that all students, by 2014, are proficient in basic skills.

If this is implemented, local and state officials will be very happy as this will give them the much needed flexibility. But do they realize how difficult it is to achieve continuous achievement goal? It is as difficult as universal college readiness and proficiency for all.

To reach this level, some schools have to work much harder and go much farther. To reach peak performance level, all public schools must strive hard. The need of the hour is to develop a strong and well designed accountability system.

The system should be able to judge each and every school depending on their capability and resources available to determine how far it can go. The system must also be able to find out if the school is on the right track and will be able to effectively serve the population in that area. “Continuous improvement” is again a one-size-fits-all preposition that will not work for such a large country like ours.

The sad state today is that though many schools and students are already performing at peak capacity, they are condemned for not improving further rather than being encouraged and appreciated.

It is easy to ask schools to continuously improve their reading and math scores. It is difficult however to realize what a great task it is given their economic and social contexts. We must steady ourselves, implement strong plans with increased accountability and stick on to it firmly and gradually move ahead. This seems to be the only way out.