Catching Up or Leading the Way

American Education in the Age of Globalization

Yong Zhao

• Publisher: ASCD
• Year: 2009
• Print ISBN: 9781416608738
• eBook ISBN: 9781416612063
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

At a time when globalization and technology are dramatically altering the world we live in, is education reform in the United States headed down the right path? Are schools emphasizing the knowledge and skills that students need in a global society—or are they actually undermining their strengths by overemphasizing high-stakes testing and standardization? Are education systems in China and other countries really as superior as some people claim?

These and other questions are at the heart of author Yong Zhao's thoughtful and informative book. Born and raised in China and now a distinguished professor at Michigan State University, Zhao bases many of his observations on firsthand experience as a student in China and as a parent of children attending school in the United States. His unique perspective leads him to conclude that "American education is at a crossroads" and "we need to change course" to maintain leadership in a rapidly changing world. To make his case, Zhao explains

* What's right with American education;
* Why much of the criticism of schools in the United States has been misleading and misinformed;
* Why China and other nations in Asia are actually reforming their systems to be more like their American counterparts;
* How globalization and the "death of distance" are affecting jobs and everyday life; and
* How the virtual world is transforming the economic and social landscape in ways far more profound than many people realize.

Educators, policymakers, parents, and others interested in preparing students to be productive global citizens will gain a clear understanding of what kinds of knowledge and skills constitute "digital competence" and "global competence, " and what schools can—and must—do to meet the challenges and opportunities brought about by globalization and technology.

Chapter 1
Recent Education Reform in the United States

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I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.
—Mark Twain

The direction in which education starts a man will determine his future life.
—Plato

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January 7, 2008, was an unusually nice day for Chicago. On this day, President George W. Bush brought a present to Chicago's Horace Greeley Elementary School. He came to announce that the school had been named a federal Blue Ribbon School, 1 of 12 in Illinois and 239 nationwide. With Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings by his side, Bush emphasized that this Blue Ribbon honor was not the same as those that might have been given at an earlier time, during what he termed a "kind of a feel-good era." Instead, he said, "it's a Blue Ribbon School because it's excelling. It's meeting standards" (Bush, 2008). And the evidence was Greeley's improved performance on tests: a gain of more than 36 percentage points since 2002 on the Illinois State Achievement Tests, to 83.3 percent of students meeting or exceeding state standards. Math scores had increased even more dramatically—up almost 52 percentage points to 90.2 in 2007 from 38.3 percent in 2002. Bush called Greeley "a center of excellence" and praised the school principal as a person who understood that "we have got to set high standards for our children and work with the teachers to achieve those standards" (Bush, 2008).

On the eve of the sixth anniversary of the day he signed the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), Bush used the occasion to call for the reauthorization of the law. Greeley was selected as the site for a reason: it exemplified the kind of results NCLB intended—improved scores on standardized tests for minority students. It proved, at least in his mind, that NCLB was working well. With a significant Hispanic population and new immigrants among its students, Greeley "is a school that is exceeding expectations because of high standards and using the accountability system as a tool to make sure that no child is left behind" (Bush, 2008).

The Greeley event highlighted the defining characteristics of education reform efforts in the United States during the early years of the 21st century: (1) excellence equals good test scores in math and reading, and (2) standards- and test-based accountability is the tool to achieve such excellence.

Test Scores as Indicators of Quality

No Child Left Behind has undoubtedly been the most significant component of recent education reform efforts in the United States. Although it intends to ensure that every child receives a good education so no child is left behind, its definition of good education is good scores on standardized tests in reading and math. The law requires that all children be given state assessments in reading and math in grades 3 through 8. If a child fails the test, she is judged not to have received a good education from the school. If the school does not make Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) on student test scores, the school is considered not providing a good education to its students and is labeled "in need of improvement." The school then faces serious sanctions—from allowing its students to move to other schools to being restructured. Schools that produce good scores are considered good education providers. Those that see significant increases in test scores, such as Greeley, are rewarded and honored.

Although the current version of NCLB does not focus on high schools, it requires reading and math to be tested at least once from grades 10 to 12, and testing in science was proposed by the Bush administration. In addition, 22 states have enacted burgeoning high school reforms requiring students to pass a state exit exam to receive their high school diploma. In 2006, 65 percent of the nation's high school students and 76 percent of its minority high school students were enrolled in school in these 22 states.

Math, reading, and perhaps science have become the most valued content of education. Students who perform poorly on a state math or reading test are considered at risk, no matter how well they do in other areas. Schools, too, are judged by their students' performance on math and reading tests, regardless of what other educational opportunities they provide. As Bush said during his visit to Greeley, his philosophy started with a "refusal to accept school systems that do not teach every child how to read and write and add and subtract" (Bush, 2008).

The virtually exclusive emphasis on math, reading, and science is also evidenced by the American Competitiveness Initiative (ACI) Bush proposed in his 2006 State of the Union address:

[W]e need to encourage children to take more math and science, and to make sure those courses are rigorous enough to compete with other nations. We've made a good start in the early grades with the No Child Left Behind Act, which is raising standards and lifting test scores across our country. Tonight I propose to train 70,000 high school teachers to lead advanced-placement courses in math and science, bring 30,000 math and science professionals to teach in classrooms, and give early help to students who struggle with math, so they have a better chance at good, high-wage jobs. If we ensure that America's children succeed in life, they will ensure that America succeeds in the world.

The high school reforms in many states show the same tendency. Many states have increased the number of required courses in math, English, and science. And in most states, the high school exit exams are primarily in those three subjects.

The almost exclusive emphasis on math, reading, and science is also clearly evidenced by funding appropriations. For example, NCLB's Reading First program has received more than $5 billion since 2002. No other subjects have received the same attention. A U.S. Department of Education initiative titled Strengthening Education: Meeting the Challenge of a Changing World was released in February 2006, following Bush's State of the Union address. The document lists Bush's education agenda for 2006. It states, "The American Competitiveness Initiative [ACI] commits $5.9 billion in FY 2007, and more than $136 billion over 10 years, to increase investments in research and development, and strengthen education and workforce training" (U.S. Department of Education, 2006). Programs on Bush's 2006 education agenda fall into four categories:

• The FY 2007 commitment to education is $380 million, which emphasizes math instruction from the earliest grade levels and ensures that high schools offer more challenging coursework.
• The High School Reform Initiative will bring high standards and accountability to high schools by aligning their academic goals and performance with the No Child Left Behind Act.
• Additional Current Math and Science Initiatives: The Department of Education's FY 2007 overall request for math and science initiatives, including funding for ACI, is a 51.3 percent increase over the 2006 amount.
• The National Language Security Initiative will address our shortage of people who speak languages critical to our national security and global competitiveness by encouraging earlier and stronger coursework in critical need foreign languages from kindergarten through postsecondary education; increasing proficiency among all speakers; and providing incentives for government service and teaching critical need foreign languages (U.S. Department of Education, 2006).

Foreign language education is the only other subject mentioned besides reading, math, and science, but it is the last item, and no specific dollar amount or actions are specified. And the mere $114 million for the National Language Security Initiative actually requested by Bush for FY 2007 was to be shared across the departments of Education, State, and Defense, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. As a result, the Department of Education requested $57 million, almost a rounding error compared with the amount devoted to Reading First.

Standards and Accountability

Accountability is an exercise in hope. When we raise academic standards, children raise their academic sights. When children are regularly tested, teachers know where and how to improve. When scores are known to parents, parents are empowered to push for change. When accountability for our schools is real, the results for our children are real.
—George W. Bush
(U.S. Department of Education, 2002)

This quote in a PowerPoint presentation used by the U.S. Department of Education to explain NCLB best explains the logic of the reform and underscores the central role of accountability, standards, and testing in the reform efforts. No Child Left Behind required that all states develop rigorous curriculum standards in math and reading following its passage, and in science by 2005. Today all 50 states have developed such standards and grade-level expectations. These standards must be reviewed and approved by the U.S. Department of Education.

To ensure implementation of these standards, tests must be developed. Every state has developed standardized tests according to these standards. Some states even prescribed textbooks to go with these standards, requiring publishing companies and authors to include and cover certain topics in depth.

No Child Left Behind has also mandated an extensive accountability system involving the state and the local education agency (LEA). Specific responsibilities are assigned to the various agencies involved in education, and punitive consequences are explicitly spelled out if the agency fails to fulfill its responsibilities. States and schools have developed elaborate systems to collect, analyze, and report data required by NCLB to show Adequate Yearly Progress. To further hold schools accountable, data on student performance must be published in local papers, and a school report card, with information about school performance as judged by NCLB requirements, must be provided to parents.

Closing the Achievement Gap: Goals of Recent Reform Efforts

The massive reform efforts in the United States have been intended to close two types of so-called achievement gaps in order to deliver a better future for America and all Americans. The first is the gap inside the United States and among the different subgroups of the population; the second is the gap between the United States and other countries. In the NCLB proposal released by President Bush on July 3, 2001, the Executive Summary begins with mention of these two gaps:

As America enters the 21st Century full of hope and promise, too many of our neediest students are being left behind.

Today, nearly 70 percent of inner city fourth graders are unable to read at a basic level on national reading tests. Our high school seniors trail students in Cyprus and South Africa on international math tests. (Bush, 2001, p. 1)

The phrase "achievement gap" is often used to refer to the performance gap between minority students, particularly African American and Hispanic students, and their white peers, and similar disparities between students from low-income and well-off families in a number of areas: standardized test scores, grades, dropout rates, and college completion rates. For example, results of the 2003 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) show that 39 percent of white students scored at the proficient level or higher in 4th grade reading, but only 12 percent of black students and 14 percent of Hispanic students did so (National Center for Education Statistics, 2003b). The gap in math was even larger, with 42 percent of white 4th graders scoring at the proficient level or above and just 10 percent of black students and 15 percent of Hispanic students achieving the same result. Thirty-eight percent of 4th graders who were eligible for free and reduced lunch scored below basic in math, whereas only 12 percent of those who were not eligible scored at the same level (National Center for Education Statistics, 2003c).

Similar gaps exist in the dropout rate and the graduation rate. In 2006, the dropout rate for white, African American, and Hispanic youth was 5.8 percent, 10.7 percent, and 22.1 percent, respectively (National Center for Education Statistics, 2008). A study on high school graduation rates (Swanson, 2008) shows similar disparities: in 2003–04, high school graduation rates were 76.2 percent for whites, 57.8 percent for Hispanics, and 53.4 percent for blacks. The report found that in the nation's 50 largest urban areas, where most low-income and minority students reside,

[o]nly about one-half (52 percent) of students in the principal school systems of the 50 largest cities complete high school with a diploma. That rate is well below the national graduation rate of 70 percent, and even falls short of the average for urban districts across the country (60 percent). Only six of these 50 principal districts reach or exceed the national average. In the most extreme cases (Baltimore, Cleveland, Detroit, and Indianapolis), fewer than 35 percent of students graduate with a diploma. (Swanson, 2008, p. 8)

Although closing the achievement gap between subgroups of students within the United States has certainly been a strong motivator for the recent reforms, closing the gaps between the United States and other countries has perhaps been an even stronger force because it concerns the well-being and future of the U.S. economy and involves a majority of Americans, including more powerful Americans—the middle class and big businesses. The sense of an economic threat from other countries has long been associated with the sense that the American education system is much inferior to those of its foreign competitors.

The achievement gap between U.S. students and foreign students is often illustrated by citing test scores on international comparative tests such as the Trends in Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), and the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS). In all these tests, the United States has not fared well. Results of the 1995 TIMSS show that U.S. students outperformed students in only 2 of 21 countries in math and finished significantly below students in 14 countries; U.S. students were significantly below students in 11 of 21 countries in science and were significantly ahead of students in only 2 countries. On the advanced math test, of the 15 countries participating, the United States was outscored by 11 countries. The PISA results were no better; American 15-year-olds ranked 24th among students in 40 countries that participated in the 2003 study (Committee on Prospering in the Global Economy of the 21st Century [National Academies], 2006). In terms of reading and literacy, 4th graders' performance on PIRLS in 2006 gave the United States a midpoint rank—18th out of 40 countries. The disappointing news is that between 2001 and 2006, U.S. students' reading ability as measured by PIRLS did not show any measurable improvement, despite all the efforts of NCLB to improve reading (Baer, Baldi, Ayotte, & Green, 2007).

The gap is also identified in terms of the number of students pursuing degrees in math, science, engineering, and technology. In October 2005, the National Academies released a report titled Rising Above the Gathering Storm: Energizing and Employing America for a Brighter Economic Future, written by a panel of 20 prominent individuals with diverse backgrounds. This report was the result of a study requested by Congress to assess America's ability to compete and prosper in the 21st century. The panel presented the following information:

• In South Korea, 38% of all undergraduates receive their degrees in natural science or engineering. In France, the figure is 47%, in China, 50%, and in Singapore, 67%. In the United States, the corresponding figure is 15%.
• Some 34% of doctoral degrees in natural sciences (including the physical, biological, earth, ocean, and atmospheric sciences) and 56% of engineering PhDs in the United States are awarded to foreign-born students.
• In the U.S. science and technology workforce in 2000, 38% of PhDs were foreign-born.
• Estimates of the number of engineers, computer scientists, and information technology students who obtain 2-, 3-, or 4-year degrees vary. One estimate is that in 2004, China graduated about 350,000 engineers, computer scientists, and information technologists with 4-year degrees, while the United States graduated about 140,000. China also graduated about 290,000 with 3-year degrees in these same fields, while the United States graduated about 85,000 with 2- or 3-year degrees. Over the past 3 years alone, both China and India have doubled their production of 3- and 4-year degrees in these fields, while the U.S. production of engineers is stagnant and the rate of production of computer scientists and information technologists doubled (Committee on Prospering in the Global Economy of the 21st Century [National Academies], 2006, p. 16).

To some, these kinds of gaps spell clear danger to the future of the United States. New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman has been quoted as saying, "When I was growing up, my parents told me, 'Finish your dinner. People in China and India are starving. I tell my daughters, 'Finish your homework. People in India and China are starving for your job'" (Pink, 2005b). The world's best-known writer on globalization, Friedman has often used this vivid and simple image to warn Americans that the Chinese and the Indians may take away their children's jobs.

Some have gone even further, likening the superior academic performance of other nations to the situation surrounding the launch of Sputnik, the first artificial satellite, which was once viewed as the symbol of the Soviet Union's superiority in military technology and a potent threat to the security of the United States. In 2007, Robert Compton, a venture capitalist, produced a documentary film to show how Indian and Chinese students are outdoing their American counterparts in education. The film, Two Million Minutes: A Global Examination, compares the lives of six students in China, India, and the United States through their final year of high school. The point of the comparison is clear, at least according to the filmmaker: American students are squandering their precious two million minutes—the estimated time that students spend in high school—playing video games and partying, while their peers in China and India spend more hours studying math and science, with a strong motivation to enter the best colleges because they all aspire to become top scientists and engineers. The filmmaker compares the situation to the context surrounding Sputnik:

Just as the Soviets' launch of a tiny satellite ignited a space race and impelled America to improve its science education, many experts feel the United States has reached its next "Sputnik moment." The goal of this film is to help answer the question: Are we doing enough with the time we have to ensure the best future for all? (Compton, 2008)

Sputnik has been used quite frequently to invoke a sense of urgency among Americans by many who share Thomas Friedman's "they are eating our lunch" belief. A report jointly issued by "fifteen of [the] country's most prominent business organizations" in 2005 uses Sputnik as the primary rhetorical device to express their "deep concern about the United States' ability to sustain its scientific and technological superiority through this decade and beyond" (Business Roundtable, 2005, p. 1). The report, Tapping America's Potential: The Education for Innovation Initiative, begins as follows:

Almost 50 years ago, the Soviet Union shocked Americans by launching Sputnik, the first Earth orbit satellite. The U.S. response was immediate and dramatic. Less than a year later, President Eisenhower signed into law the National Defense Education Act, a major part of the effort to restore America's scientific pre-eminence.

The signing organizations "feel strongly that the United States must respond to this challenge as energetically as we did to the Soviet Union's launching of Sputnik in the 1950s" (Business Roundtable, 2005, p. 2). The U.S. Department of Education expressed similar thoughts in 2006 in a report titled Answering the Challenge of a Changing World: Strengthening Education for the 21st Century:

This global challenge requires bold action and leadership. America has done it before. Following the Soviet Union's 1957 launch of Sputnik, the world's first satellite, Congress passed and President Eisenhower signed into law the National Defense Education Act of 1958. …Today, America faces not a streaking satellite but a rapidly changing global workforce. (p. 4)

The concerns seem to be well justified. The rise of China and India as the world's n...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• 1. Recent Education Reform in the United States
• 2. From the Missile Gap to the Learning Gap: Myth, Fear, and the Evolution of Accountability
• 3. Why America Hasn't Lost Yet: Strengths of American Education
• 4. Why China Isn't a Threat Yet: The Costs of High Scores
• 5. The Challenges, Part I: Globalization
• 6. The Challenges, Part II: Technology
• 7. What Knowledge Is of Most Worth in the Global and Digital Economy?
• 8. Global Competence and Digital Competence: The New Universal Knowledge and Skills
• 9. Catching Up or Keeping the Lead: The Future of American Education
• Afterword
• References
• About the Author
• Study Guide
• Copyright