Three Reasons Students Do Better Overseas
Link to article: NY TIMES
The article gives three reasons, more like examples, of why education is better overseas. The three examples are Shanghai's fighting against elitism, Canada's school funding, and Finland's teacher training.
Shanghai, one of China's most industrialized cities, took major steps to repair the disparity between strong and weak schools. They have closed or merged poor schools with higher-level schools. Money as well as teachers were transferred to the weaker performing schools. This allows for the city to move away from an elitist system where the greater resources and better instructors were given to wealthy favored schools. Shanghai has shifted education toward a more egalitarian approach, and gives students with diverse backgrounds and abilities the same high-level education. Today, their students test first in the world in math, science, and literacy on international exams. The US trailing miles behind in certain categories.
Canada, specifically in Ontario, British Columbia, and Alberta, has significant differences with the US over how they fund their schools. US relies on property taxes which means wealthy areas will bring in more money than poor ones. Then state tax money is used to fill in the gaps in poorer districts. Canada has moved towards province-funding formulas based on district's size and need. The system is meant to distribute money evenly to schools. This idea is similar to Shanghai's strategy to fight against elitism within the education system. Canada students are testing better and is on a rising trend.
Finland, though much smaller and less diverse than America, has for years been globally of the top rankings in mathematical and literacy skills. Their focus has been to improve teaching, but have also invested energy in providing high quality education for the poor and the wealthy. They even have gone as far as to provide health and dental services, psychological counseling, as well as other services for families and children. Finland has improved their teaching by moving teacher preparation from teacher colleges into universities, where it is more rigorous. Teachers are valued more in Finland, though their pay isn't monumentally different from teachers in America, and their programs accept the top quarter of the graduating high school class. Their teaching programs are renowned for across the globe,
The United States is falling behind the ranks of education. Some American workers have already felt the heavy pressure from job seekers across the globe and it has and will in no doubt affect the US economy. Our country needs to be able to compete with those around the world, but China, Canada, Japan, Finland, are currently crushing us. According to international tests the US scores around 28th in education and is slightly below the global average in the following categories; reading, science, and math.
I believe the our country needs to do something to heighten the quality of our education. Under the current circumstances, it is evident that the US will need to step up its game somehow in order to continue to compete globally. However, it is hard to imagine that the United States will adapt to such a disparate system like Finland. I could see the United States adopting a system similar to Canada's and possibly Shanghai's. Increasing the quality of education is a good investment for a country, and equality in education seems to have proven itself to work. It will be interesting to see what America will do (hopefully in the near future) to better the quality of our nation's education system.
I think that this article is awesome and really emphasizes the need in America for greater education. I think one of the problems with the educational system in the US right now is the low expectations of the teachers/administrators. If students were expected to do their homework, learn the material, and get help, they would do better. It is almost normal for a student to not do the work that should be required to pass the class. If students were expected to do more and learn more, I think that most of them would.
ReplyDeleteI also think that American students (not all but there are quite a few) don't care too much for their education. There are definitely different parts to this, but I think some of the few are low expectations of teachers (like Jason said), the refusal of students to do their homework, and the quality of education that exist in poorer areas. So many students feel entitled and they feel that it is unnecessary to finish their homework or to even learn. Often times they are the students who have never had to work for anything because their parents give them whatever they want or the opposite. Along with those who are opposite from the entitled, those who have to work a lot are often surrounded by a low quality of education. That's not to say the teachers are bad--I mean there could be teachers who just don't care, but that's not all--but they also have a low quality of resources that make it difficult to succeed in schools. Without high quality computers, books, and other supplies, it creates a difficult learning environment. I think if we adopted another program, it could help students all around the United States and increase the success in all areas in school.
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