Rethinking Education Part II: Tough Choices
In a previous post, I talked about offshoring and the challenges it poses to the American workforce. What if someone were to take offshoring seriously and rethink our educational system with that in mind? What would they come up with? That’s exactly what the New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce has done in their recent report, Tough Choices or Tough Times. The New Skills Commission’s members are a who’s who of education policy – New York City Public Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, Clinton Education Secretary Richard Riley, Bush Secretary of Education Rod Paige, and prominent labor, business, and public leaders – making the innovations in the report particularly noteworthy.
The New Skills Commission begins with the proposition that students in other countries are now getting more education and a better education; when coupled with technological developments, that means jobs will be outsourced, offshored, and automated. The future of American success depends, then, on retaining a lead in innovation and creativity – research, development, design, marketing, supply chain management are the jobs of the future. Innovation and creativity is the “key to the good life.”
After presenting ten sharp critiques of the current educational regime, they outline a set of recommendations that amount to a new structure for American education.
First, they want to create board examinations at 10th grade. That’ll motivate kids in the first part of high school, and will give those who pass the test the option to go to technical school or community college or to take IB and AP courses. Those who take IB and AP tests could then go to a 4-year university.
Second, they want to recruit teachers from the top third of students, rather than the bottom third. To do this, we’ll need to frontload compensation – higher salaries, incentives based on performance not tenure, and extra pay for teaching in remote or tough areas or for teaching shortage subjects like math and special education. They also would create a Teacher Development Agency to recruit and train new teachers.
Third, they want to restructure the school system – schools would be operated by independent contractors as limited-liability corporations. Teachers would work for and be paid by the state. Schools would be funded by the state. And schools would have complete control over spending, staffing, and management as long as the met the curriculum, testing, and accountability requirements. They’d also implement school choice.
Fourth, they would provide universal childhood education.
Fifth, they’d spend extra funding on those who need it the most. “[S]chools serving poor students will no longer be routinely outbid” for the best teachers.
Sixth, they’d spend money on providing education to the current workforce, so they have the skills necessary to succeed and adapt to a changing world.
Seventh, they’d create a system of Personal Competitiveness Accounts. Under this plan, the government would provide $500 at birth and would contribute to the account until age 16. That money would earn tax-protected interest and could be used for either college or continuing education (or both).
Finally, they’d create regional economic development authorities to coordinate education and training and come up with development goals and strategies.
As you can tell, this is perhaps one of the boldest rethinkings of American education – and it’s the kind of thinking that we need politicians at all levels of government to pay attention to. The title of the report is Tough Choices or Tough Times for a reason. None of these ideas are going to be easy to implement – and perhaps states and politicians will not want to implement all of them. But in an age of globalization and increased competition, bold ideas are exactly what we need.
They forgot to include an 11th item -- Parents.
I believe parents are as big a factor as teachers.
What can government do (or public schools which are government also since they are run from tax revenues) to train parents to be able to motivate, supervise, (and in some cases but not all, tutor) their children to complete their homework and to read the text books? And to encourage reading supplemental books in place of video and computer game, as well as MTV or reality show television time?
I think teachers do a great job under often times very stressful working conditions (inner city high school teachers are ranked on several lists as having the 2nd most stressful job behind air traffic controllers.)
The missing ingredient I believe is the parent factor. If the parents are too tired or don't care, or if they parents are working 2 jobs to make ends meet and the children are unsupervised, and/or there is only one parent, who will fill those parent's shoes for those students?
One goes into teaching not for money but for right livelihood (and many teachers will tell you in private the vacations are another reason.) I think it would be a better use of tax revenue to hire retired teachers or substitute teachers part time to tutor students after school where the students stay for tutoring voluntarily and on an as-needed basis.
Then rather than having high schools that covertly "track" students based on expectations that are based on what the students' motivation (grades) was in the ninth grade, sealing much of their fate prematurely, you can really have somethiing closer to the "no child left behind" concept.
This would allow a more level playing field for students of all socio economic levels who do not have the parental support that is so very critical to sheperd immature minds.
(I am currently pursuing a math teaching credential myself as a matter of fact.)
March 7, 2007 10:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
Re: Fourth, they would provide universal childhood education.
How is this different from what we have already? Not only are oublic schools available to all children, but some form of schooling is mandatory.
March 8, 2007 5:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
As you can tell, this is perhaps one of the boldest rethinkings of American education – and it’s the kind of thinking that we need politicians at all levels of government to pay attention to.
The proposed plan seems hardly bold and all about domination and a college professor once told me that he'd never teach high school math because "teaching 200 kids a day was a recipe for disaster" and "one needs more challenges in order to grow."
Because of this, and the problem of domination, I decided to stay in the "engineering business."
I'd like to highlight the word "domination" here since the dean of St. Mark's cathedral [link] recently noted that "domination is a sin" and I think that teachers are "guilty."
Specifically, while I was "a student" at the U of M, I decided that "college professors were a lot like taxicab drivers-- they'll keep driving if you keep paying."
The beautiful thing about literacy is that it's the opposite of "domination," so schools should have one purpose: "give kids room to become literate and less co-dependent."
And, when I decided that my best learning experiences were self led, I felt free! [The Philosophy of John Dewey]
Unfortunately, I think that k-12 teachers, and most college professors, will stick with co-dependence because it makes them feel intellectually superior and needed.
At the end of the day, the most "successful student," in my mind, decides what to study; how long to study it; how to study it; and self assesses, etc...
After I started doing that, I started to grow again. This achievement was glorious since so many studies suggest that the current education system halts personal growth....
And, as far as I can tell, the plan which you spin as being "bold thinking" looks nothing more than a recipe to halt personal growth.
In general, I absolutely believe in choice and I hope that "choice" means "more freedom" instead of "more domination." And we need to recoginize the science that says, over and over, "we remember little of what we don't teach."
March 9, 2007 7:19 AM | Reply | Permalink
This would allow a more level playing field for students of all socio economic levels who do not have the parental support that is so very critical to sheperd immature minds.
The only thing you might be missing here is the fact that when you have friends that are higher up, socio economically, you have friends that model "higher up socio economic" behavior so you keep hearing: "i'm going to go to college" rather than "I'm going to be a hair stylist" and "I enjoyed listening to mozart while I was studying for my AP exam" instead of "I enjoyed watching TV."
March 9, 2007 7:28 AM | Reply | Permalink
I once came across a book for the Educational Foundations class in the Education Dept. at my university in rural Minnesota. I was a philosophy major but found the book interesting enough to get one. The book, "Dumbing Us Down" by John Taylor Gatto nailed everything I felt was wrong about our system of schooling and education.
Gatto is retired now after having taught public school in NYC for 29 years and received Teacher of the Year award twice for his exceptional service.
He has a website where he provides a background on our system of education. Take a look at: The Makers of Modern Schooling. He names Dewey specifically as NOT one of those makers.
And as a note: the author of this TPMCafe post ought to take a keen interest in this background because our American system is based on what was learned in India in order to keep the caste system in place (see How Hindu Schooling Came to America). This is something completely antithetical to the purpose and promise of America, but NOT to the industrialists who needed a permanent underclass and very willing consumer of unnecessary and irrelevant goods. The more you place education at the service of a global economy, the more you contradict anything Dewey ever taught.
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March 9, 2007 8:44 AM | Reply | Permalink
It worries me that every proposal I've seen to further reform education tries to fix the boondogle that is NCLB by simply trying to implement greater degrees of the same 'accountability' (CODEWORD- TESTING) crap. Like Bush says, fool me once, shame on...uh...you. Fool me twice and, well- you can't fool me again. Unfortunately, this idiot NCLB plan seems to be fooling America again.
First, test scores are not equal to education or success therein. Second, to the extent a test score can measure success, a child's test score is not necessairly reflective of the teacher's ability. The child's overall health, vision, whether they had enough to eat that morning, their stress level, and (the part that we in our nation of exceptional children don't like to discuss) their native intelligience combine to play at least as big a role as what goes on in the classroom. But then again, we've shifted the burden for all of those factors to our teachers, who are expected to be everything from maintenance men to nurses to cops in our overcrowded, underfunded schools- so I suppose these 'failing' children could indeed be their fault.
The people that I find conspicously missing from these discussions and commissions are those charged with educating our children- teachers and parents. It used to be that you'd put a corporate person or an administrator on such a panel for a different perspective. Now, the teacher or parent (or heaven forbid, an actual student) are only token presences on these 'expert commissions,' like the suggested 'regional economic development authorities.' Maybe these ideas make sense if you view children as commodities and test scores and grades as just another widget to produce. If you're interested in actual education, however, they're misguided at best.
March 9, 2007 3:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
As a "student teacher," I worked with the "IMP curriculum" and I understand it is "Dewey inspired."
My opinion: "Dewey type teachers" think they're letting kids think but, every one I watched, wound up telling the kids "do it this way."
The website you mention doesn't provide Gatto's critique of Dewey but I'd simply suggest that "top down curriculum design" doesn't work no matter who inspires it.
As an educational philosopher, I like Dewey because of his thought process. I've adapted it and I have people asking me: "didn't you have to take a class to learn that?"
The website you referenced shines a light on why Dewey type curriculums fail: the environment they provide is contrived and made up. Thus, achievements aren't meaningful outside the sandbox.
March 10, 2007 9:32 AM | Reply | Permalink
I read this report when it came out, and found it a disappointing mish-mash of good ideas, buzzwords, and dangerous hints. In particular, what do you get when you combine funneling into technical schools based on tests, school "choice", schools run as corporations, and standards devised by a regional economic development board? I'm probably a bit paranoid, but it sounds like a recipe for turning students unable to afford private schools into compliant workers optimized to meet short-term business needs. It seems like the incentives to move toward company schools would just be too strong.
The whole for-profit university business (see e.g. the recent Times article on the University of Phoenix), not to mention our bizarre health insurance system, makes me extremely leery of delivering mandatory education into the market's hands.
March 10, 2007 10:39 AM | Reply | Permalink
Good job, Ganesh!
You keep praising reports put out by Titans such as Rod Paige and Joel Klein as "bold thinking" and you'll be on your way to becoming education columnist at the New York Times or Washington Post. Then Education Testing Service will put you up at the hotel on their campus and let you play golf on one of their two 18-hole courses, in between their lectures on globalization and education reform.
And your education will have directed you to a meaningful niche in our global economy.
March 11, 2007 11:44 AM | Reply | Permalink
Whle I was attending the University of Minnesota taking ed classes, one of the PhD students had just come back from an EDS intership and sang glowing praises about it...
The only thing I tell people about 1984 is: "remember, YOU ARE NOT a number! YOU ARE A PERSON!"
In some sense, people, via EDS conditioning, will take their credit score as an accurate measure of their intelligence and worth!
March 11, 2007 12:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
it sounds like a recipe for turning students unable to afford private schools into compliant workers optimized to meet short-term business needs.
I'm even MORE paranoid because the students will surely be told that they're a cut below and will only, ever, be short term employees and be bounced around at the whim of corporate america.
For example, look at Wal-Mart. I think they're hiring people for a few hours in the morning and a few hours in the evenings when they have lots of customers... otherwise, you're off the clock!
Given a situation like this, you'll never be able to lift yourself up by your bootstraps... and always an endentured servant.
March 11, 2007 12:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
It used to be that you'd put a corporate person or an administrator on such a panel for a different perspective....
I think you missed the point of NCLB which is greater political control over the schools.
After the politics are understood, then teachers will just be expected to make the resulting system work,...
Did you see ExxonMobile's advertisment the other day? They were gloating about their gift of $120 million to education. I had to laugh since that's 1/4 of a percent of what they made last year, if my memory is right and they brought in $50 billion and they also got congress to give away the oil without much private/public profit sharing.
March 11, 2007 12:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
The New Skills Commission begins with the proposition that students in other countries are now getting more education and a better education; when coupled with technological developments, that means jobs will be outsourced, offshored, and automated. The future of American success depends, then, on retaining a lead in innovation and creativity – research, development, design, marketing, supply chain management are the jobs of the future. Innovation and creativity is the “key to the good life.”
If you start with a faulty premise, you will naturally reach faulty conclusions.
The reason jobs are being offshored isn't that foreigners can do them better. It is that foreigners can do them cheaper. Unless Americans are willing to lower their living standards to Third World levels as the corporate elite wishes, they will be unable to compete with foreigners, no matter how well-educated they are.
Furthermore, there is no mention of what will become of people who simply don't have the intellectual horsepower to hold these jobs that depend on "innovation and creativity." In the past, we had good factory jobs available that allowed such individuals to make important contributions to society and raise families in comfort and dignity. Now, we don't. What should we do with individuals who simply aren't smart enough to make it in your brave new world? And don't tell me that there are no such people. Think of how dull someone with a 100 IQ is. Then remember that half of Americans are even stupider than that. Better education can ameliorate that somewhat, but the fact is that some people, by random chance, are born naturally gifted and some are born naturally dull. There's no rhyme or reason to it, and we who have high IQs owe our less intellectually gifted brothers and sisters a decent chance at life.
First, they want to create board examinations at 10th grade. That’ll motivate kids in the first part of high school, and will give those who pass the test the option to go to technical school or community college or to take IB and AP courses. Those who take IB and AP tests could then go to a 4-year university.
And what about those who don't pass? I suppose they fall off of the face of the earth.
Or maybe they decide your system is no good and vote for Pat Buchanan or Tom Tancredo.
Second, they want to recruit teachers from the top third of students, rather than the bottom third. To do this, we’ll need to frontload compensation – higher salaries, incentives based on performance not tenure, and extra pay for teaching in remote or tough areas or for teaching shortage subjects like math and special education. They also would create a Teacher Development Agency to recruit and train new teachers.
I get nervous whenever I hear garbled management-speak like "frontloading compensation." It sounds to me an awful lot like you're trying to increase the perception of teacher pay using accounting gimmicks, rather than increasing the pay itself.
Furthermore, you're not taking into account that by destroying the job security of teachers ("incentives based on performance not tenure"), you're taking back with one hand what you gave with the other. Teachers, contrary to what you may believe, aren't stupid - and they won't be fooled by such trickery.
Third, they want to restructure the school system – schools would be operated by independent contractors as limited-liability corporations. Teachers would work for and be paid by the state. Schools would be funded by the state. And schools would have complete control over spending, staffing, and management as long as the met the curriculum, testing, and accountability requirements. They’d also implement school choice.
Translation: Teachers, say goodbye to your job security!
Fifth, they’d spend extra funding on those who need it the most. “[S]chools serving poor students will no longer be routinely outbid” for the best teachers.
Suppose that schools in the Bronx ghetto can pay $65,000 a year for teachers, and schools in Scarsdale are limited to that same $65,000 a year. The best teachers will still mostly be in Scarsdale, because teaching there is far easier and more pleasant.
To close the gap, it isn't enough to pay identical wages to teachers in difficult schools. You have to pay them more.
Seventh, they’d create a system of Personal Competitiveness Accounts. Under this plan, the government would provide $500 at birth and would contribute to the account until age 16. That money would earn tax-protected interest and could be used for either college or continuing education (or both).
Why not just make college education free for qualified students, like it is in many other nations? Why is there always the need to over-complicate things by trying to bring in some kind of "personal account"?
Finally, they’d create regional economic development authorities to coordinate education and training and come up with development goals and strategies.
Meaningless babble.
Alternatively, we could admit that unfettered globalization has been a disaster for the working people of America, and start to curb it.
But that wouldn't get corporate funding, now would it?
March 11, 2007 3:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
Let's put the problem into perspective. The issue goes back to an understaffed inner city school system, teachers who have to teach to a test in order for schools to meet the NCLB requirements and the fact that the cost of a college education makes it hard for qualified students to finish their degree.
March 11, 2007 4:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
A thorough rebuttal on the key points. Especially the starting proposition that outsourced work is done "better." I know Bangalore trains people in American idiom to do call service for US corporations, but I still have trouble communicating with them.
March 11, 2007 7:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
You're absolutely correct. This smells like a fraud.
I also have read about European schools that follow a similar model to that referenced, and they are by and large failures at ensuring improvement. Especially in poor communities. This is in no way democratic, but those that tend to promote these agendas, aren't interested in promoting better quality education or preserving democracy. It's intent is imposing a caste system in the US.
March 11, 2007 9:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
This is the outcome of right wing - left wing triangulation. The left's allowing itself to be deceived into embracing globalization based on third world standards. It will be forced down our throats by allowing the neo-cons and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to supplant our work force with undocumented immigrant labor, Bill Gates' never ending stream of H1B visas. Ignoring the fact that we have a large pool of technical workers, and more students graduating all the time, with accumulated student loan debt.
There will be no self determination left for Americans. Students and workers will be ground down like cogs in the global machine. American freedoms will be wiped out in the name of corporate profits. This is what Eisenhower warned us against.
The late Senator Paul Wellstone never would have made it into college by the standards this article rationalizes. His SAT scores were very low. Imagine how much less of a country we would have had without him fighting on all our behalfs.
This can be stopped though. We have to reclaim our country by demanding an end to these practices. John McCain, George W. Bush's, the catholic church and Sen. Ted Kennedy's collusion to deny American workers their rights and protections.
If enough of us take a stand and speak out loudly enough, they can not ignore us for long.
March 11, 2007 9:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
Please read this article (LA Blackout) from the Southern Poverty Law Center that discloses the intentions of some of those behind the attemmpt to drag the US down to third world standards, and the usage of third world style ethnic cleansing that are resulting.
http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?aid=722
Because they believe that the left doesn't really care about the poor, including African Americans. They believe you will ignore this injustice.
March 12, 2007 9:41 AM | Reply | Permalink
The reason jobs are being offshored isn't that foreigners can do them better. It is that foreigners can do them cheaper...
What happens when they can produce great things for less? As an example, I used to do contract work for Micron, in Boise, ID, and, to this day, international companies, like Samsung and Hynix-- a South Korean company, offer strong competition.
In the US, Micron had to break up chip bundles because of weight, and then track them seperately-- a complex headache, but, abroad, because there's no OSHA standards, their workers simply carry the bundles "as is."
One can say that South Korea subsidizes Hynix too much but then, what's cheaper? A trade defict or subsidies?
[and US citizens] will be unable to compete with foreigners, no matter how well-educated they are.
How would we know? The US ranking in math dropped again this year! Why would companies like IBM and Microsoft outsource and move jobs around if the end result was wortless garbadge?
I went to the University of Arizona and met international students who ran circles around my intellect. The first step of recovery is admitting that you have a problem... and I'm still working on that... I can't think of a more sobering experience in my life!
March 13, 2007 1:36 AM | Reply | Permalink
Why not just make college education free for qualified students, like it is in many other nations?
When I did my student teaching, I told a black student: "does a scholarship teach you how to build a house?" Amazingly, he quickly realized that the UNSF scholarships were nothing without aspiration. Since I am white, that was a bold taunt, but it worked.
In the UK, recently, 30,000 people applied for 22,000 NHS positions... so even smart people are rejected unless they measure up.
March 13, 2007 1:52 AM | Reply | Permalink
Bill Gates and Steve Jobs don't have college degrees!
March 13, 2007 2:02 AM | Reply | Permalink
Mr. Sitaraman says
This is a view of education and the good life that makes me shudder. I desperately wish there was an education table in the discussion table area of the TPM Café. Then perhaps we could return to first principles and think a little about what the true value of education is, and concern ourselves with numbers of areas where American education is currently lacking--areas which have little to do with supply chain management.
We need to be creative in the way we define "the good life" in the first place. We need to confront sustainability issues and question whether galloping consumption is the key to "success". It is interesting how we've changed consumption from an "evil" (tuberculosis) to a "good".
Another topic of debate around the Café is why so many Americans are gulled into believing what they see on Fox News and CNN. This is an education issue. We need to worry why we're not raising a generation of critical thinkers.
We need to worry about why Americans are civically disengaged. This is an education issue, which is why the American Association of Colleges and Universities invests time and energy in multiple projects to return core values to liberal education. So does the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. (I link to the section on undergraduate education, but from there interested persons can find the sections on k-12 education, as well).
We need to rediscover truths about the educated person enunciated by our own civic heroes, who felt an uneducated citizenry was democracy's greatest peril. And they weren't talking about Tenth Grade Board Tests (anyone who thinks those motivate students really needs to reevaluate what he or she knows about tenth graders).
Look to
At the root of the difficulty of creating a vision of the United States as a civil society dedicated to the elevation of the individual in the service of the Common Good lies a perversion of education. Rod Paige and the other members of the New Skills Commission are part of the problem, not part of the solution.
aMike
March 13, 2007 6:35 AM | Reply | Permalink
Bold Ideas: No, Bold Money!
The most important long-term event in a business is the hiring of employees. In today environment most businesses expect high turnover over 20+ years.Educational systems and government expect long-term employees.
On the day of hire the education community is not competitive in pay. The teacher of the past was only achieved because of the limited occupations even for outstanding women graduates.
The way to regain this desired quality is through a pay scale to be able to once again hire from ranks of the top graduates and changes in the job that allows them to use their personality and leadership qualities to command attention and respected input from the bottom to the top.
As a parent I want the best in the classroom not looking at having the ability to drive change, advancement and pay increases to livable wages requiring teacher to leaving the classroom for management.
Before a Flashy, Board Smart (BS) General talks of a new day army or a tool change they better DAMN WELL make sure the field comanders have recruited the troops that have the potential to win, are well fed and above all are concerned more about enthusing the troops rather the BS political community!
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Today, are we searching for I deals or Ideals?
-Thinking
March 13, 2007 7:55 AM | Reply | Permalink
Ain't education debates just the cat's pajamas! The conmen leading the jejune!
One per cent of the population invents the technology society depends on; another four per cent design user friendly (dummy proof?) applications.
And educationists mouth platitudes and try to convince the other ninety-five per cent that but for their second class education they'd all be living the life of the upper ten thousand.
March 13, 2007 7:56 AM | Reply | Permalink
'The government', and 'the parents' are the two biggest scapegoats there are, after 'the teachers', when it comes to explaining why Johnny can't read. I blame television. Why?
Because even using a computer forces you to
be able to recognize characters on a screen, basically in one sense the internet is like a neverending book. Well, if you can't read, it's not much use to you, and keyboarding, well they've almost got talk n type going, but there's still some problems with it.
Anyway, like the old PSA said, 'reading is fundamental', and I think it's unconscionable that any school system anywhere would presume to give someone a high school diploma, or even the passing grades leading up to such a document, without having satisfied themselves that this graduation candidate is, in fact, capable of basic literacy. If you can't read, you may as well go basically stand outside the door to either the county jail, or your local welfare office, because employers can't afford to carry functionally illiterate and therefore unemployable people on their payrolls.
This is now the 21st century. There's no reason that there can't be 'teaching terminals' in schools, Hard-wired, well-programmed basically teach-bots that are loaded with the lesson plans that kids need to work through in order to achieve the passing grades necessary to advance.
I'll bet, if you took everything that's in the K-12 system now, and built a teaching program around it, that went as fast or as slow as the kids could learn, and made it so you could 'level up' based on performance, got things a little competitive there, some kids would start flying through their coursework in NO time. Slap, bang, boom, you're a genius, you just passed 5th grade in 3 months. Need extra time? All the kids graduate independently, now, so do it until you've got it, and provide online tutoring right there, too. Computers don't get tired, they don't get distracted, they don't fondle their students, and they can present information as long as the power's on. What they can't do, though, is convince jobs-program-oriented bureaucrats of their inherent value without public support. You don't need anything more complicated than DOS to do what I described above, take Windowsvirus off the terminals, and put in the Good Stuff that'll help kids excel in school.
March 13, 2007 3:34 PM | Reply | Permalink