Post by Moses on Dec 27, 2005 21:40:42 GMT -5
Propagandizing the 7th grade and under reading level:
Don't blame schools: Economic, social policies affect U.S. workers, competitiveness.
Ohanian Comment: All I can say is Fie on USA Today for limiting their "Comments" to fewer than 400 words. Written in a Point/Counterpoint, the opposing view representing the USA Today editorial position is titled "Tech jobs move abroad as science education in U.S. falls behind." It is corrupt beyond belief (and posted below Cuban).
By Larry Cuban
Cycles of blaming public schools for the national economic crises go back a century. In the 1890s, 1970s and today, business elites and media pundits have faulted schools for not producing graduates who would give the USA an edge in global market competitiveness. The return of Chicken Little.
In each case, critics were foolish in their narrow view of the role public schools play in a democracy, diverted public attention away from policies directly responsible for slipping economic competitiveness, and ignored the real threat to the nation.
Yes, higher levels of literacy and thinking skills are essential to prepare youth for entering an ever changing community and labor market. Schools need to be held accountable for instilling that literacy. But schools do far more than that. Taxpayers and parents expect schools to instill values that each community prizes while turning children away from drug abuse, crime and other destructive acts. And they expect schools to inspire children to value learning and decency.
When critics blame schools for slipping global markets, they scam taxpayers and parents by disregarding state and federal economic policies that have a direct impact on worker productivity and U.S. competitiveness. Creating investment incentives, dealing with trade deficits, funding technology research, supporting job re-training of laid-off scientists and engineers are policies that impact productivity and economic competitiveness far more than every student taking algebra in high school.
Finally, in blaming schools for declining economic competitiveness, critics ignore the far greater threat to the nation's moral vitality in the decades-long struggle of the bottom half of big-city children and youth who score “below basic” on national tests. Those are the students whose families lack health insurance, are underemployed and are mired in poverty.
How many of the Chicken Littles who fault schools demand experienced teachers to staff low-performing schools and comprehensive social policies that lift families out of crippling poverty?
Larry Cuban is professor emeritus of education at Stanford University. His recent book is The Blackboard and the Bottom Line: Why Schools Can't Be Businesses.
USA Today Editorial
Educational black hole Tech jobs move abroad as science education in the U.S. falls behind.
In Oregon, the state science standards lack references to stars and galaxies, according to a recent review by university science professors. In Hawaii, the standards mostly duck chemistry. In Montana, there's nothing about parts of the body, embryos, the process of disease or chromosomes.
Parents might be surprised by these findings, but business leaders aren't. Captains of Intel, Microsoft and IBM have joined with university leaders from Yale, MIT and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute to deliver a unified message: U.S. students are falling dangerously behind in science and technology. In an era of “flat earth” commerce, where well-educated Third World workers can handle complex tasks via the Internet, that's troubling.
Despite having a sixth the U.S. population, South Korea graduates just as many engineers. At the top U.S. engineering schools, more than half the students are foreign-born.
This plus cost advantages drive businesses to pursue talent across borders. Intel just announced it would invest $1 billion in India over five years for a research and development center. And Microsoft said it would invest $1.7 billion that would add 3,000 jobs in India.
K-12 educators tend to scoff at business leaders who deliver tough speeches about inadequate education standards. Not only has the USA retained its world technology lead, they say, but those same complaining business leaders rarely roll up their sleeves to help out in classrooms. Further, a recent Duke University study says many engineering graduates in China and India are far less educated than their U.S. counterparts are.
Regardless of how that debate is resolved, the science and technology deficiencies in the American education system are too blatant to ignore. They include:
•Persistent teacher quality problems. Only 41% of U.S. eighth-graders learn math from a teacher who majored in math or earned a math teaching certificate. The international average is 71%.
•Shoddy science standards. More than two thirds of the states have science standards rated at a C-average or lower, according to the science professors' review for the Fordham Foundation.
•Popular culture. TV shows and movies reinforce a message that math and science are geeky.
What to do?
According to a National Academy of Sciences report released in October, potential solutions include attracting 10,000 new, well-educated K-12 math and science teachers with federal grants of up to $20,000 annually. Federal spending on basic research also needs to rise by 10% over the next seven years, the report says.
While critics continue to assert this is another false alarm, business leaders are adjusting to the reality of the new global economy. Now it's up to schools to do likewise.
Don't blame schools: Economic, social policies affect U.S. workers, competitiveness.
Ohanian Comment: All I can say is Fie on USA Today for limiting their "Comments" to fewer than 400 words. Written in a Point/Counterpoint, the opposing view representing the USA Today editorial position is titled "Tech jobs move abroad as science education in U.S. falls behind." It is corrupt beyond belief (and posted below Cuban).
By Larry Cuban
Cycles of blaming public schools for the national economic crises go back a century. In the 1890s, 1970s and today, business elites and media pundits have faulted schools for not producing graduates who would give the USA an edge in global market competitiveness. The return of Chicken Little.
In each case, critics were foolish in their narrow view of the role public schools play in a democracy, diverted public attention away from policies directly responsible for slipping economic competitiveness, and ignored the real threat to the nation.
Yes, higher levels of literacy and thinking skills are essential to prepare youth for entering an ever changing community and labor market. Schools need to be held accountable for instilling that literacy. But schools do far more than that. Taxpayers and parents expect schools to instill values that each community prizes while turning children away from drug abuse, crime and other destructive acts. And they expect schools to inspire children to value learning and decency.
When critics blame schools for slipping global markets, they scam taxpayers and parents by disregarding state and federal economic policies that have a direct impact on worker productivity and U.S. competitiveness. Creating investment incentives, dealing with trade deficits, funding technology research, supporting job re-training of laid-off scientists and engineers are policies that impact productivity and economic competitiveness far more than every student taking algebra in high school.
Finally, in blaming schools for declining economic competitiveness, critics ignore the far greater threat to the nation's moral vitality in the decades-long struggle of the bottom half of big-city children and youth who score “below basic” on national tests. Those are the students whose families lack health insurance, are underemployed and are mired in poverty.
How many of the Chicken Littles who fault schools demand experienced teachers to staff low-performing schools and comprehensive social policies that lift families out of crippling poverty?
Larry Cuban is professor emeritus of education at Stanford University. His recent book is The Blackboard and the Bottom Line: Why Schools Can't Be Businesses.
USA Today Editorial
Educational black hole Tech jobs move abroad as science education in the U.S. falls behind.
In Oregon, the state science standards lack references to stars and galaxies, according to a recent review by university science professors. In Hawaii, the standards mostly duck chemistry. In Montana, there's nothing about parts of the body, embryos, the process of disease or chromosomes.
Parents might be surprised by these findings, but business leaders aren't. Captains of Intel, Microsoft and IBM have joined with university leaders from Yale, MIT and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute to deliver a unified message: U.S. students are falling dangerously behind in science and technology. In an era of “flat earth” commerce, where well-educated Third World workers can handle complex tasks via the Internet, that's troubling.
Despite having a sixth the U.S. population, South Korea graduates just as many engineers. At the top U.S. engineering schools, more than half the students are foreign-born.
This plus cost advantages drive businesses to pursue talent across borders. Intel just announced it would invest $1 billion in India over five years for a research and development center. And Microsoft said it would invest $1.7 billion that would add 3,000 jobs in India.
K-12 educators tend to scoff at business leaders who deliver tough speeches about inadequate education standards. Not only has the USA retained its world technology lead, they say, but those same complaining business leaders rarely roll up their sleeves to help out in classrooms. Further, a recent Duke University study says many engineering graduates in China and India are far less educated than their U.S. counterparts are.
Regardless of how that debate is resolved, the science and technology deficiencies in the American education system are too blatant to ignore. They include:
•Persistent teacher quality problems. Only 41% of U.S. eighth-graders learn math from a teacher who majored in math or earned a math teaching certificate. The international average is 71%.
•Shoddy science standards. More than two thirds of the states have science standards rated at a C-average or lower, according to the science professors' review for the Fordham Foundation.
•Popular culture. TV shows and movies reinforce a message that math and science are geeky.
What to do?
According to a National Academy of Sciences report released in October, potential solutions include attracting 10,000 new, well-educated K-12 math and science teachers with federal grants of up to $20,000 annually. Federal spending on basic research also needs to rise by 10% over the next seven years, the report says.
While critics continue to assert this is another false alarm, business leaders are adjusting to the reality of the new global economy. Now it's up to schools to do likewise.