Education serves the nation and as the nation is challenged, it is expected schools will address the challenges. That is why the curriculum is often more crowded than the highways at quitting time. It is also why the nation's schools seem to weave and veer from one new program to another. This article asserts that most of the landmark decisions in the past decade affecting education have been about access and opportunity. The nation's goal, in essence, was universal access--a place at the table for everyone. However, the goal changed, causing great gaps in performance for poor children. Further, society had changed so that a basic education was no longer enough to ensure economic success. This article argues that this shift to universal proficiency requires a different kind of education, a different kind of educational system and a different kind of system leader.