How will the US Eudcation System Catch up to the world

[SEC=UGA]

(CBS) The following report is part of CBS News' new series on education: Reading, Writing and Reform.

 

In every town in America, the back-to-school rush is on, reports CBS News correspondent Jim Axelrod.

 

In Croton, N.Y., the Arturo brothers are already cracking the books.

 

"I feel we get our money's worth in Croton," said the boys' mother. "Especially for three kids."

 

The public schools have done right by the Arturos, but that's not the case across the board, says education consultant Mark Schneider.

 

"Our top students are just not world class anymore," Schneider told CBS News.

 

And he's right. Of 30 comparable countries, the United States ranks near the bottom. Take math - Finland is first, followed by South Korea, and the United States is number 25. Same story in science: Finland, number one again. The United States? Number 21.

 

Problem Solving

 

Where does the United States outrank Finland? On the amount spent per student: just over $129,000 from K through 12. The other countries average $95,000.

 

"We have world class expenditures, but not world class results," said Schneider.

 

When it comes to high school graduation rates, the United States is 20th on the list. Germany, Japan, Korea and the U.K. all do better with graduation rates of 90 percent or more. In the Unites States, it's just 75 percent.

 

It's not so much that the United States has slowed down in the last half a century, it's more that other countries sped up.

 

"We need more octane now," said Amy Wilkins of the Education Trust. "The rest of the world is running faster than we are because they looked at what we did and they took what was good about us and added to it."

 

Education experts like Wilkins say top performing countries recruit teachers from the top of their college classes. South Korea - No. 2 in math - gets teachers from the top five percent of graduating college seniors. Finland - No. 1 in math and science - the top 10 percent.

 

"The consensus is not surprising, the most important ingredient in what works is the quality of a student's teacher," said Schneider.

 

The U.S. has one of the shorter school years: 180 days versus 220 for South Korea. Research shows teachers spend up to six weeks re-teaching what kids forgot over the summer. So a shorter break may be better.

 

"We still have an education system that is very much geared for the industrial age, if not the agrarian age," said Wilkins. "We've gotten stuck in the old norms. The world has changed and our schools have not kept up.

 

Now, the numbers suggest, might be time for a new lesson plan.

[Jimmy Neutron]

I think more money is important at some level - more money for objectively good teachers, smaller class sizes and adaquate learning materials.

 

We've found the usual mix of teacher quality here in CA. A couple are really great and one has no business in a classroom.

[SEC=UGA]

I think more money is important at some level - more money for objectively good teachers, smaller class sizes and adaquate learning materials.

 

We've found the usual mix of teacher quality here in CA. A couple are really great and one has no business in a classroom.

 

We spend roughly 3K more per pupil per year and are not getting the same results. How is throwing more money at the problem gonna help? I believe that there was a Harvard study a few years back that demonstrated the same thing, money, spending per student, above a certain level does not show a positive correlation to educational gains.

 

ETA: Sorry, It was the Iowa Education Department

Edited September 15, 2010 by SEC=UGA

[Ursa Majoris]

We spend roughly 3K more per pupil per year and are not getting the same results. How is throwing more money at the problem gonna help? I believe that there was a Harvard study a few years back that demonstrated the same thing, money, spending per student, above a certain level does not show a positive correlation to educational gains.

 

ETA: Sorry, It was the Iowa Education Department

You can throw all the money you want at it but everything - everything! - comes down to parental involvement and student desire. Without those two, forget it.

[SEC=UGA]

You can throw all the money you want at it but everything - everything! - comes down to parental involvement and student desire. Without those two, forget it.

 

I think teachers and students speaking the same language has an impact on education as well...

[Ursa Majoris]

I think teachers and students speaking the same language has an impact on education as well...

Comes under student desire and parental involvement.

[Kid Cid]

I've said this before but no one really wants to hear it. Our entire system of teaching children is completely broken. It needs to be scrapped and rebuilt from the ground up. In order for everyone to achieve the very best that they can it absolutely requires parental involvement, however, it also requires that children that excel be allowed to excel and children that can't keep up be allowed to fall behind. The entire concept of grades (both to collect children in an age cohort and to assign them a numeric indicator of their mastery of a subject) are bad ideas and need to be done away with. Call me what you will, but I don't want anyone who is planning on becoming a doctor only understanding 82% of the human body.

 

The bottom line is that we seriously need to rethink what constitutes "prepared for the world" and design a system that meet this new, 21st century criteria.

[CSSteve]

1) Look at the systems that work and copy them. 2) Parents absolutely have to care and get involved in the education of their children. If they don't, only the self motivated kids will succeed. 3) Require teachers to stay up on their subjects in a fashion similar to what a CPA or Doctor goes through to stay certified. 4) Go to a year round system, three months on, one month off. During the month off, you get help with the subjects that are more difficult to master. 5) Reward hard work and innovation. etc., etc.,etc...

[Ursa Majoris]

I've said this before but no one really wants to hear it. Our entire system of teaching children is completely broken. It needs to be scrapped and rebuilt from the ground up. In order for everyone to achieve the very best that they can it absolutely requires parental involvement, however, it also requires that children that excel be allowed to excel and children that can't keep up be allowed to fall behind. The entire concept of grades (both to collect children in an age cohort and to assign them a numeric indicator of their mastery of a subject) are bad ideas and need to be done away with. Call me what you will, but I don't want anyone who is planning on becoming a doctor only understanding 82% of the human body.

 

The bottom line is that we seriously need to rethink what constitutes "prepared for the world" and design a system that meet this new, 21st century criteria.

 

 

1) Look at the systems that work and copy them. 2) Parents absolutely have to care and get involved in the education of their children. If they don't, only the self motivated kids will succeed. 3) Require teachers to stay up on their subjects in a fashion similar to what a CPA or Doctor goes through to stay certified. 4) Go to a year round system, three months on, one month off. During the month off, you get help with the subjects that are more difficult to master. 5) Reward hard work and innovation. etc., etc.,etc...

 

Good stuff in both these responses.

[driveby]

You can throw all the money you want at it but everything - everything! - comes down to parental involvement and student desire. Without those two, forget it.

Truer words have never been spoken. :heart:

[Riffraff]

Education experts like Wilkins say top performing countries recruit teachers from the top of their college classes. South Korea - No. 2 in math - gets teachers from the top five percent of graduating college seniors. Finland - No. 1 in math and science - the top 10 percent.

 

I think this part is key. Get high end students to become the first line teachers.

 

Of course our educational motto is: "Those who can -- do. Those who can't -- teach." - or the many variations of the phrase.