While China's number one rankings in reading, science and math categories may ruffle America's competitiveness feathers, as witnessed in the latest Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), our feathers have been ruffled before, by a host of higher performing nations. America continues to be outcompeted on the PISA. In this latest assessment, the US moved little, scoring 17th in reading, 23rd in science, and 31st in math.
Before America slips further, we must retool our education system so that each child is equipped with the training and education needed to reach their maximum potential. Good schools will give back to America through innovation, investment and intellect -- key components of any economic recovery process.
How do we regain our standing, then? First, we must do a better job outside the classroom of focusing on the overall needs of each child. Students growing up in poverty confront a wide array of barriers to learning such as healthcare, nutrition and safe learning environments, before they ever enter the classroom. PISA suggests that once these socioeconomic differences are factored out there is little difference between student performance at public and private schools. The US, then, with the highest income inequality and poverty rates among developed nations, must prioritize and offer equitable learning opportunities in order to realize equitable learning outcomes.
Meeting the total needs of the family through the use of community resources and concrete services is a start. A second, related lesson from PISA shows how income inequalities are exacerbated by aggressive competition between schools, a trend which PISA holds responsible for trapping the most disadvantaged in the poorest performing schools. We must keep this in mind as America clamors for a solution, clutching onto unscale-able charter school and voucher program successes, while failing to fix inequities.
The third lesson requires changes inside the classroom. China's high-performing schools result from a combination of increased inclusivity in the classroom (rather than focusing on a small elite), increased teacher pay and training, reduced rote learning and a focus on problem-solving activities.
All of these changes reflect a paradigm shift, not unlike the one I called for in authoring the National Commission on Equity and Excellence, to be launched by the US Department of Education in January 2011. Creating equity in our education system requires a radical curriculum rethink and a tailored, not rote, approach to meeting each child's needs.
Do this, and a mixture more of equity-minded measures, and we begin to fix our student performance stateside, while simultaneously ensuring our competitiveness globally. No need for us to fret in the wake of China's rankings, just a need to wake up to new realities and act accordingly, and fast. Our children's future, and the future competitiveness of this country, hangs in the balance.
- Rep. Mike Honda (D-Calif.) serves on the Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies, and is a former teacher, school principal and school board member.
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Are American students able to analyze, reason and communicate their ideas effectively? Do they have the capacity to continue learning throughout life? Have schools been forced to sacrifice creative problem solving for “adequate yearly progress” on state tests?
I focus on a sample PISA question that offers insights into what American students can (and cannot do) in my post "Stop Worrying About Shanghai, What PISA Test Really Tells Us About American Students" http://bit.ly/eChNoY
Or do we need to create schools for students which foster creativity, critical thinking, initiative and innovation so that they may become the inventors and entrepreneurs of the future.
The U.S. really doesn't need a workforce of obedient factory workers, which is what those standardized tests are really a best indicator of.
I won't even go into the comparing American Apples to Chinese Oranges aspects of the PISA.
Thank you.
I do have one bone to pick with you, To my knowledge, there is very little if ANY correlation between a nation's standardized test scores and its global competitiveness. Read Gerald Bracey. It's a very easy assumption to make and it is one of the most often-repeated talking points in the rhetorical arsenal of ed deform fear mongering.
Recall 1983, A Nation At Risk, and compare to what the ed deformers are saying today:
"If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war... We have, in effect, been committing an act of unthinking, unilateral educational disarmament."
Below is a quote from education historian Lawrence Cremin. I believe history itself proves him correct:
"American economic competitiveness with Japan and other nations is to a considerable degree a function of monetary, trade, and industrial policy, and of decisions made by the President and Congress, the Federal Reserve Board, and the Federal Departments of the Treasury, Commerce, and Labor. Therefore, to conclude that problems of international competitiveness can be solve by educational reform, especially educational reform defined solely as school reform, is not merely utopian and millennialist, it is at best a foolish and at worst a cress effort to direct attention away from those truly responsible for doing something about competitiveness... "
And, if there's another thing to be learned from Finland, it's that socializing is an essential part of the education process. They have pre school without any emphasis on testing and start school a year later. Why one would suggest moving in the opposite direction, i'm not sure. Kids still need to be kids, and, sports do matter. A lot.
It's time to stop falling prey to the educational equivalent of the Hydra myth and deal with the real issues. Poverty, in large part a product of increasing deregulation, is causing the majority of the problems in the US right now. Start taking care of child poverty and many of the issues in the education system will clear up.
And, Mr. Honda, keep fighting the good fight. It's nice to see a politician actually trying to tackle the real issues and help people.