uren our students in the united states are compared with our international counterparts -- in china, india, and other industrialized nations -- and we rank kind of middle of th pack. then when you look here at kansas city at our student population and see that they are t faring nearly as well, we had to do somethg very drastic to make sure the students were acquiring the knowledge and skill they needed to become what we call competitive on the economic or in the economic marketplace. and so as a result of that, we went to a standards-based syste where time becomes the variable rather than the constant. are moving kansas city, p souri, school district away from that old paradigm of you do "x" amount of time in the first in nine months and then you progress to the next level. we wanted to make sure the students were mastering the competencies and skills they needed at one level before moving or prodegreesing to the