Growing the GDP

Building on the recent discussions on skills-based learning we've been seeing, I wanted to highlight these new findings from the education research journal Education Next - it seems even more research shows that the weak cognitive skills of U.S students are harming our economic growth.

We've heard many times now that in the most recent PISA tests U.S. students again trailed the average international scores achieved by students in 30 other developed nations, scoring 21st in science and 25th in math.

That's embarrassing, but what isn't talked about as often is what this indicates for our economic future. According to Education Next, economists Eric A. Hanushek of the Hoover Institution and Ludger Woessmann found that:

"Had the United States joined the world leaders in math and science by 2000, as the nation's governors called for in 1989, the nation's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) would, as measured by past results, be 2 percent greater than it is today. Although this may sound small, it would amount to more than $300 billion additional income this year.  A reform in educational outcomes begun today that moved the United States to top world standards in 20 years would yield a real GDP 25 percent higher after 75 years than were there no change in the level of cognitive skills, the researchers note."

So simply by raising the skills of our students, the U.S. GDP could be 25% higher in a generation! That means higher incomes, better jobs, and more money in the bank for every American. In this time of economic worries, American leaders and policy makers should be paying attention to education as a long-term step towards economic growth, instead of simply repeating the same old talking points and jumping from one temporary quick-fix to the next.

So how do we raise U.S. students to the top of the pack? We can start by raising our expectations for what our kids should know and be able to do, and giving them the effective teachers, time, and support to meet those expectations.

Hanushek and Woessmann examined several decades of international assessments and found that increased years of schooling by the labor force energizes the economy only when the extended time leads to greater skills. In short, a longer school day or year alone isn't going to cut it - it's what we do with the time that matters. We'll need increased time and increased support for learning in order to see gains in skills, and the much-needed economic gains that will follow.