n the front lawn of Al-
exandria, Virginia's T.C.
Williams High School,
where I have been teach-
ing English for the past
20 years, there is a large sign from the U.S. Department of Educa- tion proclaiming us "one of the outstanding high schools in America." The sign has been there since 1984, when then-Secretary of Education Terrell Bell drove across the Potomac River to present us with one of the Reagan administration's first Excel- lence in Education awards.
Nine months earlier, B...