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| Young tongues: Kindergartners learn Spanish as part of a language-immersion program in Columbus, Ohio. Such programs may give
students an edge in the global economy. Doral Chenoweth III/Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch/AP |
World's schools teach U.S. a lesson
To help US students compete in the global economy, educators seek a way to compare American schoolchildren with those abroad.
from the November 14, 2007 edition
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Some voices are pushing back against the growing sense of competition with China and other nations. There's too much of a cold-war mentality, says Yong Zhao, a professor and director of the US-China Center for Research on Educational Excellence at Michigan State University. He believes some international tests have been misinterpreted as spelling doom for America's economy.
"I think the tests are biased to reflect the talents that other cultures emphasize more," says Mr. Zhao. Asian countries tend to score higher on science and math tests because that's what they focus on narrowly, but in the US, "we have many more possible outlets for talents, and that's actually much more important," he says. Chinese educators look to US education for the creativity and entrepreneurship it sparks. "Americans should be more American – not more Chinese or Japanese or Singaporean – in our education," Zhao says.
One downside in China, where he attended school himself, is that after so much focus on doing well on tests to advance, many "lose the internal motivation to learn" and slack off in college.
To be prepared for future jobs, what Americans really need, Zhao says, is "the ability to manage across different cultures."
Zelman agrees that the issue shouldn't just be framed as one of competition. "We can be part of an international community where we can learn from each other."
To foster cross-cultural understanding, Ohio has recently received a federal grant to promote education in "critical" languages such as Chinese.
International benchmarking is perhaps a natural extension of the work many states are already doing to improve high school students' preparation for college or the US job market. Thirty states have joined the American Diploma Project Network, organized by Achieve Inc., a nonprofit in Washington. Achieve president Michael Cohen says that in Ohio, Arizona, Delaware, and several other states, "governors and chief state school officers ... basically have said, 'Well, it's great that you want us to align our expectations with the real world kids will face domestically ... but that's not enough; we need to know what our expectations ought to be in order for our kids to succeed [globally].' "
Earlier this year, Ohio received a report it commissioned from Achieve and the McKinsey & Company consulting group. It drew in part on research by Sir Michael Barber, head of the Education Interest Group at McKinsey. Sir Michael analyzed top-performing school systems, as well as systems that are improving rapidly (including a number of US urban districts). He found three elements they shared:
•The top nations recruit teachers from among the best graduates (the top 30 percent in Singapore and top 5 percent in South Korea).
•They focus on developing teacher recruits into effective instructors. (Boston, for instance, has teacher apprenticeships and instructional coaches to assist teachers.)
•They set high expectations, monitor achievement, and intervene with children who are falling behind.
Ohio's Zelman, taking such comparisons to heart, plans to recommend legislation to revise state standards, have Ohio participate in international comparisons, and improve teacher and principal development. "We feel we've made some good progress in Ohio, but we know we still have incredible achievement gaps.... [We want] to make sure that our children will be able to compete and reap the benefits of a global economy."
Comparing US, China, India
"You can see the future of a country in the aspirations of its first-graders," entrepreneur and venture capitalist Robert Compton told an audience of Harvard graduate students Nov. 2. In visits to India, he's met young children who wanted to be doctors, engineers, or scientists of some sort. He wants more Americans to get a glimpse of their future competition.
Working with filmmakers and Teach for America vets Chad Heeter and Adam Raney, Mr. Compton produced "Two Million Minutes," a documentary about how three pairs of top students – in China, India, and the United States – spent their time in high school (four years add up to roughly 2 million minutes).
The Indian and Chinese students and their families show a single-minded focus on academics, partly because competition for university slots is so fierce. A Chinese mom and dad tell how their son used to make up his own tests because he loved them so much. The American students enjoy being well-rounded, with part-time jobs, Friday night football games, and study nights in front of the TV. College applications may be stressful for some, but one of the pair has already been offered a full merit scholarship early in his senior year.
After watching the film, some students took issue with the implication that Americans should be more like the Chinese and Indians – more driven to score high on science and math tests, perhaps at the expense of other strengths. A student from a South Korean family pointed out that many Asian students just party once they hit college because they're so burned out.
Compton responded that he didn't mean the film to be prescriptive. But he stressed that if Americans don't pay more attention to advances in education around the world – the way a sports team studies top competitors – they're in danger of being left behind.
Harvard law student Neil Shah said he could see both sides, but agreed with the basic premise: "We should learn from other systems, take what's working, and incorporate it into our own."
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