A first step toward seriously responding to the need for true accountability, higher academic standards, and meaningful assessment and evaluation tools is to acknowledge the real inadequacies in the hardware and software components of elementary and secondary education. Classroom reengineering, facilities renovation and overhaul, curriculum design, and teacher recruitment and training represent some of the root problems that must be corrected before drawing any conclusions about standards and testing. Without question, the systems of accountability and performance standards being applied to our students, schools, and teaching professionals must be elevated if we expect our youth to be able to perform in a world that has evolved into an interdisciplinary, cross-cultural, and technologically-advanced global landscape. However, focusing on the symptoms of failing schools without paying adequate attention to the root causes of the low performance of schools is a meaningless endeavor at the outset. Those who support higher standards and stricter accountability without addressing the systemic and structural deficiencies in our schools do not appear to be interested in comprehensive reform. Similarly, those who oppose raising standards and increased accountability without offering any alternative approaches do nothing but harbor low expectations of the students and teachers. Whatever roadmaps we choose, we must do our best to ensure the successful nurturing of the intellectual, academic, athletic, and artistic abilities of all school age children.