Catching up on Herbert

On the flight back from our Ohio launch (pictures to come soon), I was able to catch up on some reading that my staff passed along to me. One op-ed that I enjoyed was from Bob Herbert in last Saturday’s New York Times. The column paints the picture of the education crisis this country is facing and I wanted to share with you some key parts of the piece. Herbert writes:

"At a time when the nation is faced with tough economic challenges at home and ever increasing competition from abroad, it's incredible that more is not being done about the poor performance of so many American high schools […]

"The role of the federal government in improving secondary education should be one of the major issues in the presidential campaign […]

"[But what] is front and center in the campaign is the economy. We're looking for ways to turn things around for the short and long term. One of the answers in this technologically advanced, highly competitive, increasingly globalized environment is staring us right in the eyes […] the best economic stimulus package is a diploma."

Our campaign has been making these points about K-12 education regularly and it is refreshing to see Herbert communicating the message. If we’re going to improve our economy we need to better prepare our students for college and work. We must provide them the skills they need to compete in today’s global economy.

Better Training Needed for Academic Olympics

The big news over the past couple of days has been the controversies surrounding the Olympics. Leaders from around the world are debating whether or not to travel to China for the opening games.

Well, I won’t weigh in on that issue, but I would like to share some thoughts about the academic Olympics that American students compete in daily. I frequently discuss America’s dismal standing in math and science compared to 30 industrialized nations and how policy makers have become complacent with their response to these statistics.

However, I want you to think for a moment: If the United States came in 21st or 25th in any international athletic competition – millions of people, from politicians to editorialist, would be greatly outraged.
Contrary to popular belief, the academic Olympics do count and we aren’t receiving any medals. To fix this it might require us to either practice longer, harder, or even get better trainers, but we’re Americans and we shouldn’t settle for anything other than gold.

Lack of Skilled Workers Affecting U.S Companies

AT&T is experiencing first hand how the decline of our education system is wreaking havoc on job growth and the American economy. Chief Executive Randall Stephenson reported that AT&T is "having trouble finding enough skilled workers to fill all the 5,000 customer service jobs it promised to return to the United States from India."

Comparing States to Nations

For those of you who are regular readers of this blog, you’ve heard me say many times that America’s youth are falling behind in terms of education on the international stage as compared to other countries like Japan, Singapore, Hong-Kong, Finland and China. The American Institute for Research (AIR) confirms this in their recent study, “Chance Favors the Prepared Mind: Mathematics and Science Indicators for Comparing States and Nations.”

The main finding in this report is that the highest achieving states in the United States are performing significantly below the highest achieving countries.

As ED in ‘08 prepares to bring our message to the remaining primary states, I wanted to take a moment and share with you the reports findings as it evaluated Pennsylvania, Indiana, and North Carolina.

With a score of 38, Pennsylvania’s math performance fell behind countries such as Belgium and the Netherlands.  Indiana’s math performance fell behind Hungary and Estonia with their score of 35. Finally, North Carolina received a score of 22, which puts them behind Slovenia and Russia.

These results should wake America up as to the steps we need to take to get our education system back on track. We need comprehensive education reform that will increase our current education standards, provide our children with effective teachers in every classroom, and finally give our youth more time and support for learning.

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.

Teaching and Learning Celebration in NYC

I have a busy day ahead of me in Los Angeles, but I'm already looking ahead to tomorrow in New York City. I will address channel Thirteen's Teaching & Learning Celebration conference during the panel discussion "Where We Stand: America's Schools in the 21st Century." The panel will examine where American schools stand in the world, global competitiveness in science and math, and what we can do to strengthen American education.

Keeping Finland in Perspective

Last October, I had the opportunity to speak about ED in '08 at the Microsoft World Summit in Helsinki, Finland. While I was there, I was struck by the interest people from around the world took in education, and the seriousness of purpose with which they discussed innovations and accountability. While I was questioned often about U.S. schools and No Child Left Behind in particular, many people there were more interested in what was happening in Finnish schools than American ones.

Responding to the NASSP on Two Million Minutes

Recently, the National Association of Secondary School Principals took a look at the documentary Two Million Minutes: A Global Examination. Readers of this blog are familiar with the film and its message of urgency, but the NASSP had a different take. In their statement, they write, "Two Million Minutes opens a conversation about what we value in U.S. culture and the reality of a global economy. But it fails to prove its case against U.S. public schools."

The Economists' Take

One of the challenges we encounter when trying to raise awareness around the education crisis is that it's not always easy to show how things like dropout rates or the falling performance of U.S. students on an international scale directly impact the average American (or, more to the point, their wallet).

Last week, the ED in '08 policy team and myself participated in a lengthy meeting at the American Institutes of Research to hear perspectives on U.S. education policy and the economy from a series of top economists, including Alan Krueger, Cecilia Rouse, and my son, Paul Romer, among others.

Missing the Point

I was surprised and disappointed to read Jay Matthew's column on international competitiveness in The Washington Post yesterday. Now Matthews is a guy who really cares about our schools, and recognizes that we need some drastic reforms to fix the persistent problems plaguing America's education system. That's why I was taken aback by his opinion that we needn't worry about American students losing ground.

America's Stalled Graduation Rate

Postsecondary Education Opportunity recently released a report that tracks trends in high school and college graduation rates in industrialized nations... Take a look.

Who's the Real Economic Leader?

Last week, I touched upon the economic and business implications that arise from a struggling educational system. Turns out, I wasn't the only one with the economy on my mind. The next day, The New York Times described the new economic message being played out among politicians and candidates. The Times writes, "The specter of recession, raised by the Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernake on Thursday, seems likely to dominate the presidential contest for some days, if not longer."