Dead Last
The United States is Dead Last in Basic Skills Solving among the eighteen industrial countries taking part in a test on literacy, numeracy, and digital problem-solving.
The non-shocking results come from the Program for the International Assessment for Adult Competency (PIACC) which tested thousands of adults aged 16 to 74.
The Wall Street Journal reports …
The countries that scored the highest on the problem-solving with technology criteria were Japan, Finland, Sweden and Norway. Poland scored second to last, just above the U.S.
One stark revelation is that about four-fifths of unemployed Americans cannot figure out a rudimentary problem in which they have to spot an error when data is transferred from a two-column spreadsheet to a bar graph. And Americans are far less adept at dealing with numbers than the average of their global peers.
When the original study by the OECD was published in 2013, then-Secretary of Education Arne Duncan didn’t pull his punches. “These findings should concern us all,” he said. “They show our education system hasn’t done enough to help Americans compete—or position our country to lead—in a global economy that demands increasingly higher skills.”
The new report does nothing to dispel that gloom. Data on 16- to 34-year-olds, for instance, found even workers with college degrees and graduate or professional degrees don’t stack up favorably against their international peers with similar education levels.
In the 1970s, the U.S. had the most educated workforce in the world. Since 2000, the skills and knowledge of U.S. high-school graduates have stagnated while those of other countries have increased rapidly.
Administrators and Unions First, Kids Last
The report confirms the US educators get paid the most for delivering the least.
That’s precisely what one would expect when union hiring and firing practices put educators and administrators first and kids last.
Union rules make it virtually impossible to get rid of bad teachers, even child molesters.
Doubt that statement? Then please see California Students File Constitutional Challenge to Teacher Firing Practices; Unions are the Child Molester’s Best Friend.
Addendum
Link to PIAAC Report, ht CJ and Tony.
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
Dr. Michio Kaku America Has A Secret Weapon (H1B Visas)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NK0Y9j_CGgM
Because of the above, this is one Trump point that I don’t agree with, but I’m always open to being convinced otherwise.
I’m a software engineer with 30 years of experience who has been displaced by the lower cost H1-B’s . I’ve been unemployed for almost 1 year at this time. I went to private school and my high school was individualized learning where I placed 1st in the class. I graduated from one of the top 25 universities.
The H1-B’s are here doing the grunt work for a low cost the majority are not that smart.
I really hate this guy since he reminds me that my current income is zero, nothing.
LIke the self driving autos and trucks, wait to you hear about the self writing code, this will eliminate these grunt jobs.
Mish you blame this on unions, really? To remind you what your article says: the best educated were in Japan, Finland, Sweden and Norway – every one of those countries has way stronger teachers unions than are present in the United States – way, way stronger. You also point out that in the 1970s the USA had the best education in the world. From the 1950s through to the 1970s teachers unions were really strong in the USA. It was not a coincidence that when the teachers unions were strong (1950s to 1970s) our national education was the best in the world. Now unions are weak, education is being privatized to grease the top 1% and the education we get from that sucks because what matters to the corporate education bosses is profits – not education. George Bush’s “educational reforms” were created to grease the pockets of his buddies and it has destroyed our schools, colleges and universities.
It doesn’t help that our children are too busy playing video games to study. Granted, it’s just an observation from volunteering in 4th and 6th grade classrooms, but based on my experience, I believe this is having a real impact. I can’t tell you how many times students have admitted to me that instead of studying their multiplication tables or reading their assigned book, they played video games. I guess they feel safe telling me the real reason because I’m not their teacher.
Then, when it comes time to take tests, instead of carefully reading the questions, they race through like it’s a game. If I’m standing there watching them take a test, and I tell them “Stop and think!” they do much better. But I can’t be there for every test, or for the rest of their life. It’s just frustrating and sad to watch.
There is no mystery — only lies — why US kids score low, just like there is no mystery why the US scores high in gun violence.
Black and hispanic kids score low, and have low graduation rates. It’s nothing to do with the schools. If your IQ is below 90, you probably CANNOT graduate high school. Separate out their tests and the US scores approximately where the europeans do.
Political correctness dictates pretending everyone is the same. Show me a kid with a 90 IQ designing microprocessors after ANY AMOUNT of schooling.
And let’s not kid ourselves about that either. It’s not just black and Hispanics, but Irish, Scottish, southern and Eastern Europeans too. If you are not Germanic, you’re basically black.
They quoted Arne ‘I shutdown charter schools in D.C.’ Dunkin. I thought they would quote someone who has an interest in making schooling.
“That’s precisely what one would expect when union hiring and firing practices put educators and administrators first and kids last.”
Some of that might be true, but obvious you are not a teacher … or married to one.
W’s nightmare “No Child Left Behind”
http://www2.ed.gov/policy/elsec/leg/esea02/107-110.pdf
means teachers teach kids to pass standardized tests (large part of school/teacher performance evaluation) rather than actually learning things. Not to mention vast sums of time (wasted) complying with red tape.
Administrators typically bend over to appease parents … even if it means dumping on teachers.
The trend in student competency (or lack thereof) was well on its way before NCLB.
Of course, “educators” in this country use these type of things as an excuse to get more $$$$ for themselves because it’s convenient. The fact that things don’t improve is not a problem because the same excuse can be used next time around. Lather, rinse, repeat. But one big truth they NEVER tell (either because it’s considered politically incorrect or doesn’t help bring in more gubbermint $$$$ or whatever) is that learning is a transaction, not an action. No matter how good a teacher someone is, nothing happens unless a kid makes an effort to LEARN. This is something almost no one wants to hear because it would make parents and children themselves responsible for their results instead of just being able to throw someone else’s money at the problem and let everyone feel good about themselves for a while. Learning is WORK, it’s a lot harder than watching stupid videos on one’s iPhone. That may make it politically incorrect and unpalatable, but it’s the one single biggest thing that needs to be understood in order to make any improvement happen. But nobody will make any profit from saying it so Hold not your breaths.
+1
A Day Late wins the prize. We can point fingers anywhere we like in todays world of it is someone else’s fault. Look in the mirror parent as you are as much to blame as the education system.
It is indeed all about garnering more money for educators. No other country on the planet tries to cater to every type of culture on the planet. Quite honestly English should be the only language taught in schools and parents and children should learn it. Sure secondary languages should be taught but all of this English as a second language needs to be tossed out the window. No other country on the planet does this. No other country on the planet eliminates science and physical education in favor of feel good classes. You cannot pass the grade you need to be held back. Education starts at home not in the class room.
So here I am sitting around the table with some good friends and Frank a good friend for years is complaining about his wife not getting paid enough for being a third grade teacher. Normally I just shut up and listen to all the crap but this time I asked Frank what his wife’s gross salary was. I then took off the spring and summer breaks, winter break, federal and local holidays. His wife made 6,600 bucks a month. I told him she was way overpaid and if she wanted more money she could teach summer school for the same wage.
His reply was she did not want to do that and enjoyed her time off. I was livid and told him I wish I made that kind of money!
Good comments. Families are the most significant factor in education. Wherever you see communities that value education, you see good schools. Communities where people think everything is someone else’s responsibility for problem uniformly have bad schools and high dropout rates.
A phrase I use all the time: “Everybody believes in supply-side economics, because the apparent solution to every problem is: throw more money at it!’ Oh, the anger that is evoked!
And while standardized testing is no cure-all, it is certainly superior to the notion of “Give us a big ol’ truck of loot, but don’t ask how it’s being spent or for objective measures of progress. That just makes everyone haz bad feelz!”
“P.S. Don’t forget the regular pension bumps. After all, it’s for the children!”
“The United States is Dead Last in Basic Skills Solving among the eighteen industrial countries taking part in a test on literacy, numeracy, and digital problem-solving.”
Apparently, those are not high on the school agenda, any more.
Apparently, in common core, 3×5 is 5+5+5. Addition is not multiplication, however. What is the ulterior agenda behind common core?
What is it about fear of common core that leads idiots to spout dumb gibberish like this. By definition 3*5 is 5+5+5. That is a fact that remains true regardless of how hard you clutch your pearls at the mention of common core. Multiplication is a function of addition. Before drooling on about how this “new math” is wrong you should at least understand how actual math works.
If you are counting small amounts of things, certainly. Please attempt this with 2265 x 3457. Then understand why your statement was superficial and not well thought out.
Ironically, this applies to common core.
2265×3457:
5+5+5+5+5+5+5 = a
+
6+6+6+6+6+6+6= a0
+
2+2+2+2+2+2+2=a00
+
2+2+2+2+2+2+2=a000
+
5+5+5+5+5=a0
+
through to
2+2+2=a000000
=
Tada
Even with a multiplication table you will not have to add up more than 9 nines to figure out any sum .
By definition 3*5 is 5+5+5.
By definition multiplication is not addition. X does not = +.
3×5 does not equal 3+5.
@ crysangle
I could do that, true. I could write all that down. However, why should I not train my mind to remember the multiplication tables, though? Rather than mechanically write 2+2+2+2+2+2+2=a00, I could simply engage the neurons and remember 2×7 = 14 and then carry the one up.
Training one’s brain to do the work of a calculator was accounted as a skill (literally!); during accounting courses we’d race to mentally foot a column before someone could get the result with a calculator.
The point is not to mechanically grind away with the most basic addition. The point is to be able to know the shortcuts such that one can grasp the advanced topics without reverting to counting.
I would like to point out that the last paragraph of the quoted section contains an opening sentence followed by a sentence that actually has nothing to do with the first sentence.
“Most educated” and “skills and knowledge” are two entirely different things, although a stupid person might think they are the same. An accurate, on-subject sentence following the first would read “Since 2000, the U.S. workforce is even more educated than 1970.”
The country is overflowing with “education” and yet far behind less educated countries in “skills and knowledge”. Colleges weren’t teaching much better in 1970, we just weren’t wasting so much effort putting so many people through them – they learned their skills on the job, in trade schools, etc. Colleges really never had “skills and knowledge” as their stated purpose, their purpose was/is mostly to stimulate thought. In the hard sciences and perhaps law, the ability to think IS “skills and knowledge”, so those are the handful of professional areas where college education goes hand-in-hand with skills-and-knowledge.
I would like to believe that the ability to think is also the “skills and knowledge” of journalists. Alas, the WSJ’s hiring of Douglas Belkin and his editors proves my belief is unfounded.
I think it is a bit remiss to blame this on teachers. (And I’m no teacher’s union supporter by any stretch of the imagination.) I see it as a cultural issue. An evolving culture within the United States that has stopped questioning and instead regurgitating everything by rote. Problem solving is one of my biggest challenges globally, but where as I will get solutions out of most other regions the US folks can’t seem to solve their own problems anymore. (And I’m not just talking about the younger generation.) Part of it is fear of making a mistake has grown (one of my biggest complaints about Asia work culture), but there also appears to be a general lack of intellectual curiosity in the general population on questioning why they do something a certain way.
I don’t directly blame teachers
I directly blame teacher’s unions
Mish
It’s not just the unions. Scores have been going down in many other countries as well. In general academic skills start to go downhill once the professional educators (pedagogy) start taking over. This applies to many different countries where this same devolution can be decades apart. The USA was the first country where the educators started to take over in the early sixties. Education is a lot like housing: 60 years of inflation.
Pedagogy , that is exactly it – every question has an answer and it is someone else who will tell you it, so ‘you just sit there and accept as we will later examine your ability to do so ‘ .
This is in fact little more than establishing a patronage.
Mish, U are a union hater from way back, admit it.
Of course I am – I even posted on it.
Started in High School
Mish
I am married to a teacher/administrator and I know many teachers. They all seem to hate Common Core as well as No Child Left Behind. They also hate it that it is so difficult to fire bad teachers. It is not unusual for a union to go against the wishes of the majority of it’s members, just like politicians who go against the majority of their constituents.
I also know parents of young children who hate Common Core. They tell me they cannot even help their grammar school kids with math homework anymore.
Fox News today:
“If a bill passed by the Mississippi House becomes law, students won’t be the only ones receiving grades from teachers.
Under House Bill 4, also known as the Parent Involvement and Accountability Act, teachers would be required to grade parents’ involvement with their children’s education.”
Ron J – now “that” is interesting, and of course is really where the problem comes from, the parents. With both parents working (leaving aside the really, really poor, uneducated parents), there is little time to spend with their children, helping them with their homework, etc. Families are too stretched.
And there’s far too many uneducated, stupid people out there with dismal parenting skills. From this we expect teachers to work miracles? Just try it, anyone. Let me know when you hit the frustration point, which won’t take long.
What is ostensibly a way to crack down on parents that produce poor offspring will inevitably be used against parents that leave the system, fight the system, or think in ways that the oligarchs of the system dislike.
No doubt this will be a metric for CPS to remove or threaten to remove children from white non-liberal households.
Yeah, the progressive lefties who control the Mississippi legislature and political scene will surely be pursuing the few conservatives who live in deep blue Mississippi.
While I admire your wit, you inadvertently used the term progressive. The thing about progressives is that they like to use precedent, especially when it is created in another state, by unsuspecting but well-meaning people. These people are #Cuckservatives, who happily compromise away any principle when it’s “for the children”.
Incrementalism on the road to hell happens even in Red states.
Mish,
Can I ask, do you know how people are selected to take this test? I’ve never been asked, my wife has never been asked, my kids have never been asked. Maybe overall America is truly in this ranking, but that is hardly the case in the northwest suburbs of Chicago where I live, and it certainly was not the case when I was at U of I studying engineering, got in with a 30 ACT in 1985, which would not even come close to getting me in now.
Always curious of these rankings showing the US looking bad.
Mike
Good question Michael
I went to the site even before you asked and cannot find anything.
I was looking for a simple rank high to low of the countries
Everything seems to be locked up
So – I have no idea
Mish
Tables and Figures start on page 7.
http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2016/2016039.pdf
See Addendum
Link to PIAAC Report, ht CJ and Tony.
I actually took this online when I heard about it years ago. It was terribly simple.
Yes. ACT scores for entry to competitive programs are up but only because of foreign applicants. Median SAT/ACT scores are falling across US.
You can’t blame this on the teachers or the teachers unions. The US is a stupid country that values stupidity. Look around – is intelligence valued in this culture anywhere? We live in an idiocracy and we deserve exactly what we get.
Quick skim of the report, the age group tested, adults 16-65, 64% of the group HS or less education. I think the US is just a wider ranging populace. Heck, look at the top countries, generally 100% homogeneous populations — Japan, Finland, Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Korea.
I’m not entirely sure what this report is trying to prove other than getting a good sound bite and helping out the cause for people who say we need more money for education.
Not everyone can be a doctor or engineer or lawyer. There is not a damn thing wrong with being a mechanic (my Dad), plumber, electrician, ditch digger, etc. This is a load of BS.
Not a load of BS at all.
The US education system clearly sucks.
In Europe, people speak multiple languages, and most speak better English than a lot of people in the states.
Mish
But why does it suck? It absolutely does not suck where I live. But 25 miles to the southeast, Chicago, it does suck.
Michael I am guessing you do not watch Jeopardy. Many of the smartest people there are not from professions normally thought of as requiring smarts at all. Some are housewives or “stay at home Dads”. A recent winner was a bus driver. Point is: don’t assume people in menial professions are necessary not very smart. A college degree does not necessarily ensure that someone is smart either.
Do you read “Dilbert”? Who is the smartest guy in “Dilbert”?
Have you been reading Mish for very long? He has written many times about how the US wastes too much money on ineffective education.
Dogbert, of course.
or Wally, depending on your life strategy.
I have spent my entire career working with Engineers, Scientists and Phd’s. I can attest that degrees and competence are utterly unrelated; and that people with high academic standings were either exceptional at whatever they did, or were robotically average at best (the vast majority). A good education is simply a start; what one does with it is their testament to life.
For all those who didn’t get the college degree got educated at the University of Living….and I know many who are exceptionally bright and fine examples of how I would want my kids to turn out to be.
Per, I was thinking of Mister Garbage Man; the sage of Dilbert.
“Dilbert’s garbageman is frequently described in the comic as “the world’s smartest garbageman”. He occasionally solves extremely complex problems for Dilbert and in various strips has developed several futuristic inventions. He once returned Dilbert from the dead by repairing the cloning device that Dilbert had thrown into the garbage. In the TV show, it is revealed that he is the only garbageman for the whole city and is able to collect for all houses through “shortcuts”.” (Wikipedia)
CJ,
Sorry, I was generalizing. My Dad is one of the smartest people I know, but put him in front of one of these questions from this test (did you read the questions?) and he would fail miserably. Ask him to rebuild an engine, or build a house from scratch, or any 3D visualization of a problem, and he’ll beat anyone.
In general, it’s a mistake to generalize.
Nothing wrong with dropping out of school if your thirst for learning is kept intact.
Never completed HS and went to work at age 15 Joining the military at 17 to 26 Formed my first company at 27 Raised a family and sold my Holding company in 2007 Never stopped learning, particularly from making mistakes. Most of the valuable education my kids got, they received at home or working for their “Old Man”.
Proper parenting is what is lacking and what parenting there is, has been slowly eroding.
We obviously need to spend MOAR on education!
The late great George Carlin sums up US edumacation.
http://youtu.be/ILQepXUhJ98
These results mean squat. Mish says they prove teachers do the least with the most money. Teachers say they need even more money to catch up to the rest of the world.
The results that matter are that the US is the richest most successful large economy in the world. France, Germany, Japan, South Korea… they all do great on tests, but would be among the poorest US states.
Life isn’t a standardized test. Read The Millionaire Mind. The ranks of millionaires are full of people bringing our average down.
The fact that the US has the most billionaires is a function of free market capitalism (or rather what’s left of it), not the US education system.
Defense of the US education system is absurd.
Mish
I never meant to defend any education system Just wanted to point out that tests are meaningless. Results matter, but success in life is the result that matters.
Phillip’s statements demonstrate the validity of these test results. The respective GDPs of France, Germany and Japan are all bigger than that of any US state.
You are joking right? When comparing how poor or rich states or countries are GDP has to be divided by the population. Otherwise you’ll come to ridiculous conclusions like India is better off than Australia or that Vermont is the poorest US state.
Want to know a bigger joke? Thinking GDP is a relevant and meaningful economic statistic.
@ Philip, there are many other reasons why the US has richer people than many other countries. The fact that they survived WW2 with hardly any damage and most of the world’s gold, the fact that they could then get reserve currency status, then abuse that privilege and so get goods and services for literally nothing. The US also used money and muscle to extract resources from many third world nations with the help of their agencies like the IMF, World Bank etc. To top it of, the US has enormous natural wealth itself. Don’t confuse ‘business success’ with learning.
I am from India. Here is an anecdote, A (wealthy) family here with three children in the same school my kids go to moved to the UK because the kids could not make the grade here. They were really dumb. However, they are reportedly doing very well there! Looks like you are not alone.
It is amazing that you get such poor results given the incredible facilities you have. I’ve lived and worked in the UK and US and found the facilities in the US much better than those in the UK, but it doesn’t seem to make a difference.
As someone else said, kids have to WANT to learn.
You are correct. Economic success is not a perfect way to measure educational outcomes, but I’d argue it is better than standardized test scores. Unless you are wanting to go on and be doctor or lawyer an A average has little advantage over a B or C average in college.
The time you spend studying to get straight A’s would be better spent joining extra curricular activities like clubs related to your major or getting relevant work experience.
Maybe the kids in India would be better off studying less. They could spend more time exploring original ideas and gaining social skills instead of locking themselves in a room to study all the time.
Public school everywhere, not just in the US, is set up to train mindless corporate drones, not critical problem solvers. I think we’d be better off with less traditional schooling and more time set aside for kids to spend with adults in the “real” world.
Phillip,
Now, you are talking about per capita GDP!! The US is ranked only 10th on that list. Anyway, Germany certainly wouldn’t be among the poorest US states even on that basis. So, who’s joking then?
I was always talking about per capita GDP. It is the only way to make these type of comparisons. Do you really think Scarsdale, NY is poorer than Detroit just because they have fewer people? In 2014 (latest numbers the BEA had) Germany would be 37th among the US states. i’d say bottom third is among the poorest.
I don’t know which data you saw, but if you compared the 2014 data for the respective countries, Germany would rank about 23rd among the US states (ignoring the DC). I’d say that the top half is NOT among the poorest.
You have to adjust the raw BEA numbers for inflation. They are in 2009 dollars.
To make it simple, why don’t we just look at the 2009 data instead?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_between_U.S._states_and_countries_by_GDP_(nominal)_per_capita
Tell me if you still think your claim is valid. Anyway, if you were so obsessed with per capita GDP, why did you conveniently ignore Norway? Norway did better than the US on those tests, and its per capita GDP is better than the US’s.
Promote autodidacticism. If you’re a poorly educated person living in a developed nation, the only person to blame is YOU.
http://pbs.twimg.com/media/CdIE_PCUkAAv5-l.jpg
Given the age range of the tested group, it is difficult to say what the cause is. If it’s teaching, is it the teaching of 56-68 years ago when the 74-year-olds were in school? Or is it the teaching of the past 12 years while the class of 2018 has been in school?
As I am spending my retirement years taking classes in community college (4-year colleges are just too expensive) I observe college age students on a daily basis. They seem to be equal to or above those I went to college with 40 years ago. I am currently taking Human Anatomy and 2nd semester French. The Human Anatomy course is not a pushover. While taking a chemistry class and later a physics class, a few years ago, I twice saw students leave halfway through an exam in tears. Perhaps I am getting old and slow although I spend a lot of dough on nootropics but I am not at the top of my classes despite the amount of time I put in. It could be, however, that a smaller percentage of young people are entering college now, or that those who do are taking STEM courses instead of Women’s Studies.
In any case, I think the real problem is parents who rely solely on the school system – which has always been a problem. A ‘free’ ‘education’ enables parents to shun their natural responsibility to get their children prepared for adult life and private schools only have to beat the public ones – not good. For concerned parents , I suggest the following:
For pre-school:
http://www.iahp.org/
For school-aged children, especially math:
http://www.kumon.com/
And whatever you do, forget about Sylvan.
“Your comment is awaiting moderation.”?
In election year rhetoric, if someone cites numbers, the real story is in the percentages, and vice versa.
When “Greatly above” is defined as 2 or more points out of 270 (0.7%), that should be a clue you’re being had. If the complete range for all countries ran from 300 down to 250, I’d be worried. Somehow I suspect last place is considerably further down than that.
The chart shows the top 19 of some 170 political entities and while I’m sure our education system has fallen into intellectual disrepair, we still aren’t doing all that bad.The chart also shows unsurprisingly that Japan, Korea, North America and northern Europe lead the world.
It used to be true that, “A mind is a terrible thing to waste.” Now it has become, “Waste is a terrible thing to mind.”
The best thing about stereotypes is that they’re generally true.
This test is mostly meaningless for any real policy consideration without also discussing the current demographics in the US.
disagree
Here’s the problem with these test comparisons I have been reading for decades now where the USA compares poorly to Japan and Scandanavian countries. The difference is that the USA has a wide disparities between schools in wealthy areas and poor areas. Countries like Japan, Scandanavia and Europe do not have as large disparities. My guess is that if you took test scores from rich neighborhoods in Boston, Bay Area, Minnesota, Seattle…they would compete internationally. The problem is the USA has some REALLY bad public schools in poor largely minority areas the pull down the overall test scores. Places like Japan and Finland do not have the same history as the USA. The Southern USA was a plantation slave economy that freed tens of millions of uneducated slaves 150 years ago, and the USA is still working on integrating them into mainstream,. Also the USA took in tens of millions of poor uneducated laborers from Mexico the last 50 years, many illegal. Japan and Finland did not have these challenges!!! A more fair comparison is between the USA and Brazil and I bet we compare favorably. That is a fair fight. Comparing the USA to tiny ethnically homogeneous countries like Finland and Sweden that do not have the U.S. history is idiotic! Sweden has like 10 million people! It’s freaking smaller than Illinois!
My guess is that if you took test scores from rich neighborhoods in Boston, Bay Area, Minnesota, Seattle…they would compete internationally.
I am quite certain they wouldn’t .
Mish, I love you, but it seems you have an ax to grind here. I read the sample questions. My 6th grade 12 year old, currently being educated in NW burbs of Chicago, in public school, would easily score at the 4/5 level on the test, which would have ranked at/above the top. And so would have 90+% of the kids with her.
Do those countries that finish on the top (Japan, Sweden, Norway) have teacher’s unions? I would think they do but perhaps someone knows better.
People were complaining about the woeful state of American education in the 1950s when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik and had the first man in space
Unless we break this down into demographics, the data is useless.
Lot of point missing here. US is at 96.8% of the mean, Japan is at 103.8. Rounding error?
Forced Public Schooling – not “education” – is a rampaging success worldwide!
Gatto’s explanation 2/3 of the way through Chapter 15 of the Underground History really hit home with my experience. http://www.radio4all.net/index.php/program/50300
I am always skeptical of articles condemning US education because they are a smokescreen for why corporations offshore manufacturing, i.e. cheap labor, and in my thirty years as an engineer I saw US engineers compete well with engineers from around the world and engineers with moderate GPAs compete well with engineers with high GPAs. The reason kids aren’t learning these skills is not just the education system. It is the cultural lack of appreciation of these skills. They aren’t cool. Teenagers are the ones learning these skills.
The dumbing down of our kids was successful!
The only way to fix this is to provide extreme rewards for those who can do math, and can get things right. Engineers are treated like trash in this country. Silicon Valley police officers, who require only minimal math skills, mostly outearn engineers with Masters degrees. Especially once their pensions are added to the equation. Abolish the H-1B, let domestic talent get back to work and be more highly compensated, and I bet that kids will, over time, recognize the long-term value of mathematical and scientific literacy.
How come Mexico and Chile are not in the comparison? They’re OECD countries and probably have more in common with the US then such mono-ethnic societies as Japan and Sweden, etc. And Russia is not an OECD country, but it is certainly as economically developed as Turkey and with more ethnic nationalities than Germany and Iceland. Or how about comparing the US to, say, India or South Africa, Brazil or Argentina? Maybe the Americans would rank better compared to more ethnically diverse societies.
OK, the unions as their member teachers have a stake in the blame, but how about the relative complacency and entitlement attitude of the students/parents? I taught in the 70’s, and then subbed in the early 2000’s, and was appalled at the changes. I also have some close Asian friends, and these people hustle and accept nothing but excellence. I shudder to think what place the US system would hold without these self-motivated people propping up the curve.
Union protection of lousy teachers is definitely bad.
But larger problems are the lack of quality training for teachers, the abysmal compensation, the social problems they are expected to deal with, the lack of quality school buildings and curriculum materials across the board — all make a bigger difference.
Looking at Trumps popularity, this makes a lot of sense
US scores for students, for example, rise markedly if the data are adjusted for race and class. Though in aggregate, the US trails, white and asian students in the US typically come in near the top of peer countries. See, for example, http://www.epi.org/publication/us-student-performance-testing/.
The US does not have a general problem with educational achievement. Rather, our minority communities perform at the bottom of world rankings. The answer, then, is focusing resources on these low-achievement groups.
Yeah, except that the teachers in Finland, Sweden and Norway have even stronger unions plus tenure. You are clearly smart enough to know this, but it doesn’t fit with your ideological libertarian narrative, so don’t.