The bulk of the universities are about teaching kids

Americans want students to get the best education possible. We want schools to prepare children to become good citizens and members of a prosperous American economy.

We all know that there are these exemplars who can take the toughest students, and they'll teach them two-and-a-half years of math in a single year.

I've always been interested in science - one of my favourite books is James Watson's 'Molecular Biology of the Gene.'

Research shows that there is only half as much variation in student achievement between schools as there is among classrooms in the same school. If you want your child to get the best education possible, it is actually more important to get him assigned to a great teacher than to a great school.

Our teachers deserve better feedback

When you revolutionize education, you're taking the very mechanism of how people be smarter and do new things, and you're priming the pump for so many incredible things.

Employers have decided that having the breadth of knowledge that's associated with a four-year degree is often something they want to see in the people they give that job to.

Lectures should go from being like the family singing around the piano to high-quality concerts.

In low-income countries, the main problems you have is infectious diseases.

I don't think there is any philosophy that suggests having polio is a good thing.

In K-12, almost everybody goes to local schools. Universities are a bit different because kids actually do pick the university. The bizarre thing, though, is that the merit of university is actually how good the students going in are: the SAT scores of the kids going in.

The Gates Foundation has learned that two questions can predict how much kids learn: 'Does your teacher use class time well?' and, 'When you're confused, does your teacher help you get straightened out?'

Unemployment rates among Americans who never went to college are about double that of those who have a postsecondary education. 

We all know that there are these exemplars who can take the toughest students, and they'll teach them two-and-a-half years of math in a single year.

Until we're educating every kid in a fantastic way, until every inner city is cleaned up, there is no shortage of things to do.