A Sputnik Moment?

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/07/education/07education.html?adxnnl=1&emc=eta1&adxnnlx=1291748579-pgjL9+102sdOw1uJz/evog

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"Those who labor with their minds govern others; those who labor with their strength are governed by others." (Meng-Tzu)

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Today's report in the NY Times on China's debut in international standardized testing has caused quite a stir. Pundits reported on TV early this morning that this could, in fact, be a "Sputnik Moment" in the sense that this could stir America to do something about it's weakening competitive position in education in the same way it reacted to Russia's stunning success in orbiting a satellite first!

We hope it does!

The Program for International Student Assessment (known as PISA) was given to 15 year old students in 65 countries by the OECD. The results are trusted and consistent. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan indicated that the U.S. came in 23rd or 24th in most subjects. Average math scores of American students put them below 30 other countries.

So, on the math test (500 is average), students in Shanghai scored 600, Singapore 562, Germany 513 and the U.S. 487.

Importantly, "teaching" has climbed up the ladder of preferred occupations in China and salaries have risen. That's important because you get what you pay for. One of Arne Duncan's predecessors opined this morning that getting rid of the worst 5% of U.S. teachers would raise scores on this type of test by 30%.

So, get better teachers. How do we do that? Pay them more! Part of U.S. government infrastructure investment needs to be for higher teacher salaries and better schools.

And now for some perspective: Shanghai is a giant city-state within China. It's 20 million very special people who are not the "average" population of China. The 5,100 15 year old students students who took the test would probably qualify as the "elite" of China. A U.S. comparison would be better made if 5,100 15 year olds from Palo Alto (and surrounding suburbs) took the test.

One of the things that we most enjoy about the NY Times is when they create a "Room for Debate" site as they did for this article. It's called: "What Is a College Degree Worth in China?" One of the four debaters (Yong Zhao: Distinguished Professor, Michigan State University College of Education), points out that a McKinsey study found that fewer than 10% of Chinese college graduates are considered suitable to work in multinational companies based in China.

Why? Because the educational environment is entirely too "test-oriented." It is a "gaokao" culture where everything centers around tests that determine where a student ends up studying in college. Once in college, the orientation is the same - entirely too theoretical.

What this implies is that China is growing a generation of "test-takers." That's what they do.

The facts are that college graduates in China are having difficulty finding jobs. Partly that's because the jobs aren't there (for a host of reasons) and partly that's because multinational companies don't want to hire them.

So, the test-takers of the city-state of Shanghai came in first in a worldwide test. And, the test-takers of the city-state of Singapore (who used to be first) came in second. In neither case are those "test-takers" comparable to the broad range of students that the U.S. is trying to educate. While we don't know what the U.S. sample was, we're sure it crossed all socioeconomic classes.

What the U.S. needs to do is not politicize the China success and, instead, look to people like Geoffrey Canada whose miracle in Harlem has been made into a movie ("Waiting For Superman") that we hope to see soon. Geoffrey Canada cared about what happened to every kid, block by block in Harlem and guaranteed them and their families that if they worked hard at what he told them to do, they'd go to college. It worked.

In the hardest place, Geoffrey Canada did the best job because he knew the secret was caring about each student individually. Great teachers know that it's not a "job," it's a calling.

So, how can the U.S. do the best for the most students? Get great teachers and pay them. There is no other answer. China is doing that. Why aren't we?