Our students left in the economic dust, fading fast

 

 

 

I wonder, will late 2013 emerge as a historical turning point in the U.S. economy, sparked by a breakthrough in K-12 education reform?

Or will ignorance win out?
Last month, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan made an off-the-cuff remark that the newest opponents of K-12 reforms, known as Common Core, are suburban moms who suddenly realize that “their child isn’t as brilliant as they thought they were, and their school isn’t quite as good as they thought.”

The education secretary was referring to the poor performance by the first round of students to take Common Core-based exams. Essentially, he indicted the “every kid wins a trophy” mentality that has led to rampant grade inflation in our schools.

 

Of course, Duncan spoke the truth. But a manufactured political firestorm forced him to apologize for his tone.

Yet, just two weeks later student test results from across the globe demonstrated that American teens not only rank far behind many other countries, their comparative abilities in math, science and reading had fallen at an alarming pace. The news merited a national emergency.

The fact is that, in this age of globalization and automation, “local control” should carry no more relevance in the realm of K-12 education than it does in running the Pentagon or funding the Department of Homeland Security. In our high-tech world, we are in a global competition to create a knowledge-based economy, and we are losing. Badly.

 

Last week, we received the latest round of disturbing news from the Programme for International Student Assessment, which collects test results for 15-year-olds from 65 countries.

The PISA results found U.S. students slipping below their standing in the last set of international exams three years ago, falling further below average among the world’s most-developed countries.

In mathematics, 29 nations and provinces outperformed the United States by a significant margin, up from 23 three years ago, the report said. In science, 22 education systems scored above the U.S. average, up from 18 in 2009.

And in reading, 19 other countries or provinces scored higher than U.S. students, a jump from nine in 2009, when the last assessment was performed.

 

The top overall scores came from the Chinese provinces of Shanghai, Hong Kong and Macao, and the nations of Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea and Japan. The small nations that outpaced the U.S. included Lichtenstein, Estonia and Lithuania.

Spending per student was not a factor. Nor were poverty levels. A poor nation such as Vietnam outscored the U.S. significantly in math and science.

The tests were administered to a demographically diverse group of kids yet few U.S. students scored in the top levels and America also had a high percentage who scored near the bottom.

 

This dose of reality goes beyond kids not making the grade. With education emerging as a key economic issue, this is about far more than classrooms and text books.

We were warned three decades ago that, based on poor student performance, we had become “A Nation At Risk.” Last week we learned that that we have become a nation in decline. So far, that lesson has not sunk in.

Experts have sounded the alarm, projecting that the emerging job market will essentially ignore those without a college degree for anything but low-level positions. Businesses are clamoring for Congress to increase, by tens of thousands, the number of special visas granted to lure skilled engineers from overseas, especially for America’s high-tech industries.

Researchers at Michigan Future Inc. have amply demonstrated that establishing a knowledge-based economy in our state will generate far more jobs and prosperity than any tax cut. The belated emphasis by education officials on STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Math) programs is a start.

 

But here’s the overall education situation: Michigan kids are falling behind average U.S. kids, and typical U.S. kids rank no better than mediocre on academic tests compared to students across the globe.

Duncan, who charitably called the PISA results “a picture of educational stagnation,” knows better than most that local schools are failing but local officials gloss over the big picture and act as cheerleaders for their mediocre institutions.

When the annual scores by 11th-graders on the Michigan Merit Exam and the ACT test were released earlier this year, the results showed that just one in five of our state’s high school students are college-ready.

In Macomb County, the picture was more gloomy. The county’s juniors scored below the state average and 11 of Macomb’s 21 school districts are tagged with this assessment: less than 10 percent of their 11th-grade students are on track to handle college after graduation.

 

Any parent or taxpayer reading that set of facts should feel like they’ve been scammed.

 

A key reason why American kids rank so poorly on the PISA exam is that it tests students’ ability to use their academic skills to solve real-world workplace situations. These are “word problems,” not multiple choice, that force students to rely upon their knowledge, creativity, analytical abilities and critical thinking – all the attributes 21st Century employers demand of their workforce.

That is precisely the kind of learning that the Common Core standards, approved in 45 states, strive for. In Michigan, Common Core cleared its last hurdle, coincidentally, just hours before the new PISA rankings were released.

After a round of nonsensical criticisms that claimed Common Core was a “government takeover,” and after lawmakers studied the issue for months, the Republican-led state House put the program back on track in September with an 85-21 vote.

Those standards, developed by our 50 governors, praised by our top education reformers, represent the best chance for the nation to catch up on the global scoreboard.

In the meantime, it strikes me that in the 21st Century nearly the only comparisons made by Americans of the U.S. vs. the rest of the world center on our overwhelming military superiority and our ability to win bucket-loads of Olympic medals.

 

But, I wonder, how would America feel if our global standing on the education/economic front emerged as the equivalent of U.S. soldiers in retreat or American athletes struggling for a 14th-place finish?