George Will: Arne Duncan's school of wisdom

[Enrique]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/26/AR2011012606996.html

"Since 1995 the average mathematics score for fourth-graders jumped 11 points. At this rate we catch up with Singapore in a little over 80 years . . . assuming they don't improve."

- Norman R. Augustine,
retired CEO of Lockheed Martin

What America needs, says one American parent, is more parents who resemble South Korean parents. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, 46, a father of a third-grader and a first-grader, recalls the answer Barack Obama got when he asked South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, "What is the biggest education challenge you have?" Lee answered: "Parents are too demanding." They want their children to start learning English in first rather than second grade. Only 25 percent of U.S. elementary schools offer any foreign-language instruction.

Too many American parents, Duncan says, have "cognitive dissonance" concerning primary and secondary schools: They think their children's schools are fine, and that schools that are not fine are irredeemable. This, Duncan says, is a recipe for "stasis" and "insidious paralysis." He attempts to impart motion by puncturing complacency and picturing the payoff from excellence.

He notes that 75 percent of young Americans would be unable to enlist in the military for reasons physical (usually obesity), moral (criminal records) or academic (no high school diploma). A quarter of all ninth-graders will not graduate in four years. Among the 34 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development nations, only four (Mexico, Spain, Turkey and New Zealand) have dropout rates higher than America's, whose 15-year-olds ranked 23rd in math and 25th in science in 2006. Canadians that age were more than a school year ahead of their American counterparts; Koreans and Finns were up to two years ahead. Within America, the achievement gaps separating white students from blacks and Hispanics portend (according to a McKinsey & Co. study) "the economic equivalent of a permanent national recession."

Another study suggests that a modest improvement (from a current average of about 500 to 525) over 20 years in an international student assessment of 15-year-olds in the OECD nations - improvement in reading, math and science literacy - would mean a $115 trillion increase in these nations' aggregate GDP. Of that, $41 trillion would accrue to America. McKinsey calculated that if American students matched those in Finland, America's economy would have been 9 to 16 percent larger in 2008 - between $1.3 trillion and $2.3 trillion.

(...)

Conclusion? The state defined proficiency down. Solution? Penalize that. Regarding grades K through 12, federal education policy - if such there must be - should permit, indeed encourage, 50 laboratories of educational experimentation. Federal policy should be confined to providing financial rewards contingent on improvements confirmed by national metrics - Duncan's single goal post.

The Education Department sits at the foot of Capitol Hill, where many new legislators consider "federal education policy" a constitutional oxymoron. They have a point. They might, however, decide that the changes Duncan proposes - on balance, greater state flexibility in meeting national goals - make him the Obama administration's redeeming feature.

[bluestateguy]

1. There are too many parents who do not value education in the home

I see that as the biggest factor. Not the teachers, not their unions, not the lack of money, not even politicians.

I have zero patience with parents who refuse to take education seriously.

[wilt the stilt]

2. I know this is going to sound terrible but

our education starting going down in direct correlation to when women started going into business and other professions. Until the 1970's women only had 3 occupations Nursing, secretary and school teacher. We had a lock on really smart women who unfortunately only taught. We have now lost all these top people to more lucrative professions. No one speaks about this.
It will take probably 15 years to get back to quality teachers. We need to pay these people good starting salaries so we attract top people who are not interested in going into business and flush out people who are mediocre.
This takes time.

[Perky]

3. Did you catch Obama's comment in th SOTU regarding Baby Boomer Teachers Retiring

Those who sucked it up for a generation of mediocre pay because they understood the value of the noble profession are retiring or dying. There is no one willing to take their place..... This is a ticking time bomb!

[wilt the stilt]

6. It goes back to an earlier time

actually I am talking about the teachers who were teaching in the 50's, 60's and the early 70's. By 1975 the women started to go out into the workforce. I'll give you an example. I worked with a project manager who's mom taught at West Georgia University . Her mom knew Newt Gingrich. Everyone thought he was an asshole. My friend came from a long line of teachers. She was the first to break the tradition.

[Enrique]

4. first, prove that it's the teachers' fault

second, if a woman wants to go work for a corporation, does that mean she's "quality"? I've worked with a lot of shitty women at corporations. And I bet there are a lot of excellent teachers that wouldn't get anywhere in the corporate world.

[wilt the stilt]

5. It had a better pool of talent in the old days

simple as that. No women Doctors, dentists, lawyers, engineers(my niece is at MIT).

[craigmatic]

8. We used to have more stay at home parents in the past to help kids with homework because a family

could live on 1 manufacturing pay check. Now everyone has to work 2 jobs in the service economy just to make ends meet. That's what's made the kids' grades suffer. there's only so much teachers can do if they aren't getting help at home.

[wilt the stilt]

9. I don't necesarily agree that parents hepled their kids more back then

Parents were way less involved with their kids in the 50's and 60's. I'm trying to remember the authoress and she was out of NY. She made which I believe was the correct take on the parents of the 50's and 60's and she was right that there was a real dividing line from children and adults. Parents are more involved today. Parents hardly ever came to sporting events in high school. They come all the time now.

[montanto]

10. Hear, hear!

And the most at risk kids only have one parent working two jobs and NOBODY is raising the kids but the teachers (and the corrections system).

[amandabeech]

11. You'll have to find smart people who want to put up with high stakes testing like NCLB.

One of my friends retired this year at 55 because she finds the NCLB testing too stressful.

The system she teaches in is a small, poor rural school with many, many children who come to school speaking little or no English. Non-English speakers are welcome, but they require more resources than the district has.

Hence, testing that might provide more money and programs like "Race to the Top" are make or break for the school system.

My friend was by all accounts an excellent teacher, and I think that it will be hard to get new teachers of her caliber (she was the Salutatorian of our high school class, by the way) even with a lot more money.

Good teachers come to school every day to teach, not to engage in fund raising.

[craigmatic]

7. We keep comparing ourselves to these countries who don't spend that much on their militaries.

That's where most of our money goes. Now with 2 wars going on the military will take drop outs. So do we really want to fix education? I don't think so.