Why is education falling behind?

[IronFist]

Why is education falling behind in America? Test scores are dropping, some kids can't solve even the easiest math problems. What's the explanation for it? Common core, mass culture, video games or it's just because children don't want to study? I believe the answer lies in our culture as it doesn't endorse intellectualism anymore. It became way too entertainment and sex-oriented. How will we compete with other countries in future if our children have no will to study?

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

People in the past didn't respect intellectualism any more than they do nowadays. In fact, I would say the intelligent are glamourised far more than in the past, with an explosion of pop science, public intellectuals etc.

[WVdemocrat]

People in the past didn't respect intellectualism any more than they do nowadays. In fact, I would say the intelligent are glamourised far more than in the past, with an explosion of pop science, public intellectuals etc.

This is very true. Guys like Bill Nye (I personally watched his show all the time growing up) and Neill deGrasse Tyson are practically superstars. And then you've got all of those Discovery Channel and NatGeo documentaries.

[Blue3]

People are trying to get students started earlier and earlier in more advanced learning concepts, especially in math, but it just makes more students fall through the cracks. Instead we should make sure all students have a solid foundation.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

In California, Prop. 13 is largely to blame.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Because of government

Having teacher's unions sitting across the table from politicians they elected certainly doesn't help.

I would say though the quality of teachers is low, the students are being forced to talkle more earlier and we are too busy teaching to the test as opposed to actually teaching people to learn as opposed to what they should now, as if the Gov't were a knowledge dispensary.

We need to move a system that focus on core competencies early on like analysis, problem solving etc, and less on memorization. We need better tests and better, more engaging lesson plans and yes we do need to incentivize better teaches to encourage higher performing college students to not only go into the field, but take on some of the toughest class rooms in the worst performing schools.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

Why is education falling behind in America?

Because of garbage like "zero tolerance" and school uniforms.

[pbrower2a]

Because of government

Having teacher's unions sitting across the table from politicians they elected certainly doesn't help.

I would say though the quality of teachers is low, the students are being forced to talkle more earlier and we are too busy teaching to the test as opposed to actually teaching people to learn as opposed to what they should now, as if the Gov't were a knowledge dispensary.

We need to move a system that focus on core competencies early on like analysis, problem solving etc, and less on memorization. We need better tests and better, more engaging lesson plans and yes we do need to incentivize better teaches to encourage higher performing college students to not only go into the field, but take on some of the toughest class rooms in the worst performing schools.

Having teachers' unions sitting across from elected politicians hostile to teachers and education isn't so great, either. Politicians who push such junk as young-earth creationism appall me.

I put much of the fault of K-12 education on undergraduate education which has sacrificed liberal education for its own sake with 'professional' education which might be strong on pedagogy but weak on teaching leaders of all kinds the sort of learning appropriate for educated people. If prospective educators don't get to learn philosophy they don't learn what they must teach. The material taught in K-12 education is by definition below college level. Having been a substitute I have been unable to teach anything that I did not know before college or that isn't common knowledge already among high-school students.

I concur on the slightness of value of memorization. We all have reference books and the computer at our disposal, do we not?  There are things that must be memorized, typically in early-to-middle elementary grades, like math tables and names of countries -- and of course vocabulary lists and conjugations or declensions in some foreigh languages.   

[Simfan34]

Why is education falling behind in America?

Because of garbage like "zero tolerance" and school uniforms.

...who has school uniforms? Is that why Asian education systems have fallen behind, too?

Teacher quality in this country, for example, is quite low in relative terms. Inflexible promotion systems have a lot to do with this.

[Potus]

I'm going to stake out a pretty unpopular position on the "It's the standardized testing!" argument.

When states like Oklahoma was considering AP US History, this forum revolted because AP classes are wonderful courses. Many people on this forum have benefited from the high-quality instruction made available by AP classes, not to mention the possibility of replacing an expensive mandatory college course with a $90 exam fee. In my personal experience, Advanced Placement courses have been the best in my high school career.

Now, the College Board administers the Advanced Placement curricula with one tool: standardized testing. AP courses are designed to secure student passage on the AP exam. Teachers are taught to "teach to the test."

Why, then, do we assume standardized testing is the problem with mainstream public school courses if our highest quality instruction is aimed at standardized testing? Teaching to the test is not the problem. The test is the problem. We need higher quality standards and a more responsive testing method.

I would support limiting standardized tests to two tests a year. The first is at the close of the first quarter of the school year, the second is at the end of the year. You would be tested on the exact same standards each time. A new way of interpreting the data gathered by these tests would be required with a greater emphasis placed on student growth as well as student mastery.

The test should also move to include more qualitative measures of student knowledge such as essays, projects, creating a presentation, etc. The states should also release copies of the test, in the same way the College Board does, to allow teachers to more effectively guide their instruction to the high-quality standards.

This is a reasonable way to go about standardized tests without throwing the baby out with the bath water. Accountability and data collection are crucial for guiding our future endeavors in education.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

Also, you will notice that states with stronger unions have better schools.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

Why is education falling behind in America?

Because of garbage like "zero tolerance" and school uniforms.

Are you stuck in a 90's wormhole?

My school uniform was dorky (mainly because my family bought it large assuming I would grow into it, and I never did), but it hardly took away from my education. (Although it did make it easier for rival school rivalries to develop)

[RFayette]

Our math standards are far below the norm.  In many universities, the majority of Chinese students entering got an  800 (Grinnell is one, I believe) on the SAT Math section.  

Compare Shanghai's math questions to the SAT Math.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-06-02/take-the-test-to-get-into-china-s-top-universities

The Shanghai college admissions test math questions are at least at the level of SAT Math Level 2, which only the top math students in the United States take.

The issue isn't just income inequality, as some would say.  Most students at well-off schools would have little hope at hacking those questions.  We need to step up math/science rigor big, big time, starting in middle school.  

We also should introduce a lot more skills like computer programming and accounting/bookkeeping as well as auto mechanics and hands-on trades like carpentry to all middle and high school students; additionally, students should be able to opt for a vo-tech education starting in 9th grade.  In my experience, those who are average students or worse in high school get very, very little out of those years.

I know these are grandiose plans, but I think they'd do some good.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

Chinese education isn't everything; a lot of people note of the inflexibility and overly cautious nature of a lot of Chinese grads. I also think that maths should reorient itself away from arithmetic (largely frivolous in a computerised world) and towards interpretation of problems. Treat mathematics as more of a science, and emphasise the utilitarian aspects of the denser aspects of the subject. Populist guff like "just teach them the time tables, like I learnt at school" should be treated with disdain.

English could re-emphasise itself as a critical subject with teachers having more freedom over their curriculum, rather than every high school grad copying the same hackneyed analysis of 1984/Of Mice and Men from crib notes.

In addition, there should be caps on class sizes.

[RFayette]

Chinese education isn't everything, I agree, but we should strive for their math standards. We should emulate the levels of critical thinking found in those high-level questions and inculcate them in our students, along with maintaining a good number sense (developed through arithmetic).  This may require an hour longer per day to have a double math block, but I think it would be a lot better without the sheer craziness of some aspects of the Chinese model. 

[Bandit3 the Worker]

Isn't Finland the world's education leader now?

[DemPGH]

In the States, measures have been undertaken since the middle 1970s to water down public education (beginning with IDEA), and that's exactly what has happened. Right now, to listen to a person with a Ph.D. in Education or an ED.D. is almost comical. Public education is not anywhere near as rigorous as it should be, but private schools are largely not the answer because they're drawing from the same pool of people as teachers! Granted, a private school might give teachers a little more authority in their classrooms, but the fact that private schools are basically for profit negates that. The answer is to make public schools more like colleges/universities, but that won't happen. (I didn't learn anything until I went to university, and there I ate it up).

[ingemann]

Okay people I don't often say nice thing about the American education system; but everything USA do badly China do worse, and the thing USA do right they don't do as well. The Chinese score well on PISA test, but first only Shanghai are meassured by PISA. Imagine if USA only selected one city to be rapport to PISA test, and they used it as a way to get international prestige. Second from everything rapported the Chinese education system are even more based on test than the American one is, cheating and bribing run rampant and are supported by the parents.

Also Chinese student have in general begun to get something of bad reputation when they study abroad. In fact last year 8000 Chinese students was expelled from American universities, according to a survey among 1657 of them, 81% was expelled for poor academic performance or cheating.  459 800 Chinese student left China to study (not in USA but over the entire world) last year (WSJ).

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[CountryClassSF]

The unions are too powerful. They put themselves first, and education second. 

[RFayette]

I guess I should have replaced "Chinese" with "East Asian" in general, with Shanghai and Singapore as examples.  My point is that the top 1% of math students here would be merely average there.  I happen to believe that's a problem.  The US is only competitive with them when we get to the top .01% level (essentially Math Olympians), and I happen to believe we should change this.  We shouldn't just accept losing to them when we can clearly do better.

[Classic Conservative]

Because of government

[RFayette]

School was always very easy for me. I almost never had to put in any serious effort. I never studied; I just went to class, listenend, jotted down brief notes, skimmed the text (if ever), and then got an A or a B in the class. And Munster High School is like Top 300 in the country and routinely places Top 5 in Indiana. The only way to feel academically challenged was to take lots of APs (which even then, weren't that challenging) and/or participate in academic extracurriculars which actually forced you to work to make it worth your time. Even my freshman year of college was the most boring thing ever. It's the same stuff I've been learning for the past 6 years, over and over again. It was always teaching to the weakest kids, and I sincerely wish I had been homeschooled instead.

All I remember about school for the past 5 years is being bored and angry (feeling that my time was being wasted). School feels/has felt like it's a mile wide and an inch deep. I have to go on DuoLingo, Babbel, Coursera, Atlas, ItalCultura, and Wikipedia to actually learn anything useful and interesting. School just gets in the way of education.

Indeed.  Even in top suburban high schools, you have to take the most challenging workload for it to be anything difficult.  This is why I am so, so skeptical when people say that most of America's educational problem is mainly a socioeconomic status problem.  Highly-rated public suburban high schools filled with well-off students aren't great at all.  To reference, I've looked at standardized tests for China, Korea, Singapore, etc. and they're all much harder than what we see in the US.  If it weren't for Science Olympiad, my overall education would have been pretty limited.  

[muon2]

Chinese education isn't everything, I agree, but we should strive for their math standards. We should emulate the levels of critical thinking found in those high-level questions and inculcate them in our students, along with maintaining a good number sense (developed through arithmetic).  This may require an hour longer per day to have a double math block, but I think it would be a lot better without the sheer craziness of some aspects of the Chinese model. 

Critical thinking is what the Chinese do not inculcate in their students. I have taught or advised a number of Chinese students at the undergraduate and graduate level. On the whole they are way ahead of their American counterparts in their computation skills. When faced with a problem that can be directly reduced to solving an equation or applying an algorithm they rock. When faced with a situation that requires the open-ended design of a question or experiment they are stuck. They require a higher degree of oversight than Americans in projects that require initiative since they tend to wait for guidance towards a specific question, and when they solve it they just wait for new input rather than explore related questions.

[RFayette]

Chinese education isn't everything, I agree, but we should strive for their math standards. We should emulate the levels of critical thinking found in those high-level questions and inculcate them in our students, along with maintaining a good number sense (developed through arithmetic).  This may require an hour longer per day to have a double math block, but I think it would be a lot better without the sheer craziness of some aspects of the Chinese model. 

Critical thinking is what the Chinese do not inculcate in their students. I have taught or advised a number of Chinese students at the undergraduate and graduate level. On the whole they are way ahead of their American counterparts in their computation skills. When faced with a problem that can be directly reduced to solving an equation or applying an algorithm they rock. When faced with a situation that requires the open-ended design of a question or experiment they are stuck. They require a higher degree of oversight than Americans in projects that require initiative since they tend to wait for guidance towards a specific question, and when they solve it they just wait for new input rather than explore related questions.

Even in math?  I admit that's a little surprising, at least for Shanghai. 

http://www.oecd.org/pisa/test/

Shanghai students do rather well on the problem solving test and are absolute rockstars on the math test.  It seems the problem solving test would look at "critical thinking" skills not directly drilled into them, considering the way they were formatted into an application-style problem.  Is there a difference between students in Shanghai/Macau and the rest of China in this domain? 

At least to me, it seems the "problem solving section" would be a decent gauge of critical thinking in mathematics domains to me.

[freepcrusher]

education isn't falling behind. When you control for demos, the U.S. is doing pretty good.