House Education Chair: U.S. School System Is 'Failing Our Country'

WASHINGTON -- U.S. students ranked "average" in an international education assessment released on Tuesday, but House Education and Labor Chairman George Miller (D-Calif.) is giving the country's school system an F.

"Average won't help us regain our global role as a leader in education. Average won't help our students get the jobs of tomorrow. Average is the status quo and it's failing our country," Miller said in a statement Tuesday.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan called the results "a massive wakeup call," adding that the findings released earlier today by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development "show that a host of developed nations are out-educating us."

The OECD Programme for International Student Assessment report, which compares the knowledge of 15-year-olds across 70 countries, found that Korean and Finnish students scored the highest marks overall. More generally, the report found that Asian students, especially students from China, tended to score above their counterparts from other parts of the world.

On a scale of 1,000, Americans received 500 in reading, 487 in math and 502 in science. Although American students did make small gains in science and math, they continue to lag significantly behind other countries in those subjects.

"The difference between the countries at the top of these rankings and the U.S. is that the countries who are outperforming us have made developing the best education system in the world a national goal," Miller said. "They've recognized that the strength of their economy will be inextricably tied to the strength of their education system in the 21st century."

The OECD report's authors concluded that over the next 20 years, raising scores in math, science and reading by 25 points would result in a gain of 41 trillion dollars for the U.S. economy.

"The educational success of other countries while the U.S. has stagnated is a clear, unequivocal sign that a shift in federal education policy is absolutely necessary," Miller said. "It is time we decide as a nation that we can no longer afford to stay just average. Average is not good enough for a country as great as ours."

Comments

[Rodger leMonde]

04:45 PM on 01/17/2011

As a nation we have devalued facts and information. Too many complain about elites, meaning anyone who can read and comprehend facts. We have several generations that are products of worsening schools, that are challenged by having to deal with the reality of life and fear that education is what keeps them down. After 30 years on a college campus I have seen curiosity drop, a sign that the process is the goal not the learning.

[Progressneeded]

01:22 PM on 12/12/2010

Legislators are failing our country! Stop beating up on teachers and turn the finger to where it really should point.

[ThomasPaine1776]

02:00 AM on 12/12/2010

Wanna raise test scores?
1. Expel students that disrupt classrooms.
2. Refer to rule no. 1

[Progressneeded]

01:21 PM on 12/12/2010

I am with you there! It is unbelievable that the onus is placed totally on the teachers when in reality disruptive students and uninvolved parents should share a good part of the blame.

[Cyrus Trance]

08:11 PM on 12/11/2010

I'm shocked.

[missouriwatcher]

09:46 PM on 12/10/2010

What I see dragging our educational systems down are the never ceasing requirements for new testing laid on our schools by officials that see we have a problem, but without any real solutions just mandate more tests.  While tests are good, too large a number place unsurmountable burdens on students, teachers, and administrators.  Students and teachers both need more time for learning--and not just readin', 'ritin' and 'rithmatic but also social sciences, natural sciences, languages (English, Classical, and modern foreign), music, philosophy and critical thinking skills (the list is not limited to only these).  Without these, all we turn out are unthinking people easily manipulated and of little ability to serve the greater interests of the societal whole.

[WhatDaBleep]

10:42 AM on 12/10/2010

Well tell the republicans to stop defunding our schools so the rich can buy another yacht!

[Okie Deadhead]

10:09 AM on 12/11/2010

Agree!

[Kat Posing]

12:31 AM on 12/10/2010

I have four children, one with a learning disbility. From a parent's stand point, the problem is funding.

I've watched the funding in California schools dwindle down to near nothing. Art, Science, Music, PE - all are almost a memory. Special Education is hit/miss. I remember actually doing science experiements in 4th grade. My kids read about it a couple weeks. I actually cooked, sewed and made things in woodshop during 7 and 8th grades. The kids have a class called home economics, but don't actually cook or create anything. My daughter reads about art instead of actually painting. We expect kids to develop a love of science and the arts when they don't really DO anything scientific or artisic in school. That's where critical thinking is developed. There are no teacher's assistances, with 35 kids in a second grade classroom. No fieldtrips, nurses, cooks, few councelors. Our school's parents' foundation pays for the librarian, some computer equiptment and online subscriptions for the school. And now the school year's being reduced because of furloughing. Kids are no longer allowed to play kickball, tag and other childhood games because school administrators are afraid of children getting hurt during recess and their parents suing. And children are becoming obesity statistics. Children are expected to KNOW how to read by end of kindergarden, when they bearly understand the alphabet, and parents expect teachers to raise their children by reducing incomes.

And then we wonder WHY the school system is failing.

[leftbehind2000]

11:20 PM on 12/09/2010

Until we fix the economic model that rewards schools in affluent neighborho­ods at the expense of everyone else, the U.S. will continue to fail our school system, not the other way around.

[ThomasPaine1776]

02:04 AM on 12/12/2010

Perfect post. A 10.

[leftbehind2000]

06:09 PM on 12/09/2010

The elephant in the room remains virtually unchalleng­ed in today's debate, and that is this: the system of funding in our public school system is exceedingl­y biased toward schools in affluent neighborho­ods.

The nation's public schools are primarily funded through community property tax. Consequent­ly, high $$ communitie­s shower neighborho­od schools with money, while schools in lower $$ neighborho­ods continue to suffer. This promotes and reinforces a class system that has become more profound with each succeeding generation of kids.

Why does this issue get so little play in today's debate? Perhaps it is because those with a voice reside in such communitie­s as would have to surrender a bit of wealth to make education equitable to the rest of America's youth.

Until we fix the economic model that rewards schools in affluent neighborhoods at the expense of everyone else, the U.S. will continue to fail our school system, not the other way around.

[curmudgeon98]

03:07 PM on 12/09/2010

Our rich folks now classify public education as a 'privilege', not a right - especially post secondary.

[hawkseye]

02:44 PM on 12/09/2010

Dear Congressman Miller,

If you want to improve the schools, offer good salaries and decent working conditions, including a good supply of materials. Get rid of NCLB and encourage creative learning atmospheres. Then go to work on our cultural problems. Reward parents who actually parent, who get their children to school everyday, teach them manners and supervise them with their homework. Then, see what you can do to discourage the materialistic and militaristic aspects of our society. Finally, show your respect for teachers.

[teacher39years]

02:41 PM on 12/09/2010

"If you tell a lie long enough and loud enough, people will believe it." It seems that this same script is being read by different Educational Reform players. I wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that the ESEA (Elementary and Secondary Educational Act) is up for review. Before the election, Obama criticized No Child Left Behind. Now he's a key player in putting it on steroids.

[Kat Posing]

12:33 AM on 12/10/2010

No child left behind has left every child sitting on the curb.

[Jo-Anne Gross]

10:32 AM on 12/10/2010

I can assure you,the problems were very very entrenched and significant prior to it-they were simply swept under the carpet.
You as a parent are better off knowing the schools are accountable,results oriented and not very busy with social promotion.
We pay the piper somewhere.
You might say,all is going well then he applies to College,gets in and crashes because he doesn`t know how to do the work.

[plthomas]

01:32 PM on 12/09/2010

Nope, got it backwards; our country has failed the possibility of universal education: http://www.opednews.com/articles/Political-Reform-Must-Prec-by-P-L-Thomas-100905-271.html

[Kiffanik]

12:31 PM on 12/09/2010

In Florida, it's $9,000 per child, $20,000 per inmate (over 1/2 non-violent drug offenders). Pride printing, our privatized prison company, makes about $30 million per year. Prisons are built using 4th grade standardized test scores as a projector of future educational performance. Follow the money to the top, why would they invest in making sure all children have access to quality educations when they need that future labor source?

[teacher39years]

02:31 PM on 12/09/2010

Florida's new Governor, Rick Scott, who specializes in privitization and medicare fraud, appointed Michelle Rhee to lead his "Educational Transition Team". Jeb Bush is working behind the scenes using his "Nonprofit Educational Foundation" to help them.

[Jo-Anne Gross]

09:55 AM on 12/10/2010

I just read somewhere that reformers with a microphone are leading the charge and every expert is sitting on a chair listening to them and not being consulted.
HOWEVER-those same chair sitting experts have virtually destroyed public education.
We`ll have to see who does best.
Things are challenging,but not worse,they couldn`t be.
I still feel the real tragedy is teachers not trained to teach the basics,their results with students are in direct response to their own lack of specific knowledge a great deal of the time.

[LoftyDreamer]

11:51 AM on 12/09/2010

The country is failing education. Protect children from poverty. When you compare our low-poverty schools with low-poverty schools of other countries, we're at or near the top. Poverty is a huge part of the reason our overall scores are lacking. Stock and staff our school libraries. Students will improve their reading scores by READING, not by following fancy multi-million dollar programs or being subjected to more testing.