Jay Matthews has written about education for many years in the Washington Post, where he blogs regularly. A few years ago, he wrote a laudatory book about KIPP.
It is always interesting when Jay steps outside the reform agenda and criticizes it. For example, he shouted “whitewash” when the D.C. Inspector General swept the Rhee cheating scandal under the rug a few months ago (Jay’s wife headed the investigation of the scandal at USA Today).
Now, he writes that we should we wary about trying to model our schools after those in Asia. He cites a survey of Asian students in the U.S. who described their nation’s schools and contrasted them to the American schools they now attend. The Asian schools are completely test-focused, and there is little time for questioning or stepping outside the “right answer” approach.
One of these days, I expect that Jay will become a critic of today’s determined detractors of American education. He is too smart not to.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Isn’t it also true that most Asian countries only test their top students? From my understanding, students are sorted at very early ages into tracks that lead either to university or to vocational/menial work. Only those on the university track are tested, at least on national standardized tests. Am I wrong about that? If I’m right, that alone would explain the difference in scores between Asian countries and the U.S. It’s easy to get top scores if you eliminate all the low scores.
Dienne not only do most Asian countries do this but most industrialized nations around the world do as well. In the USA, for better or for worse, we believe that any kid can do anything in their future.
Yes this is true. I taught in Japan for many years. What no one ever talks about is the students with special needs. Children with severe/profound disabilities are segregated out of the general population early and put into separate schools. These children are not expected to take standardized tests.
And in mainstream schools, there are no special education teachers or classes. Families are expected to supplement their child’s education with expensive private tutoring and cram schools. After middle school (in the U.S. this is grade 9), they take a high school entrance exam and test into a high school. In my prefecture, strong test-takers entered an academic school (college prep), while those who did not fare as well on the almighty exam were sent to either a Technical (mechanics, factory work), Agricultural, or Commercial school. I taught at both an Academic and Technical high school. The academic school was rigorous and strict. Students were placed in large tracked classes of 40+ kids and sat through lectures most days while furiously taking notes. The classes had very few opportunities for discussion/debate/creativity. At my technical school, on the other hand, the kids did not try hard. Most were not going on to college. There were a number of behavior problems at that school. I am not sure if these kids take the international exams. but I have a hunch that they didn’t. I may be wrong.
I am proud that the US has chosen to give equal learning opportunities (in law, if not in practice) to all students regardless of ability. It is an expensive choice, but a worthwhile one. All the more reason why US schools should not be judged on test scores or per-pupil funding.
He also recently wrote about ditching the SAT but nly in favor of AP and IB testing. He will change his mind on this. He’s a good marketer, tha’a about it
Yet there are variations within Asian countries as well. It may be possible to find a happy medium: to combine Asian discipline (broadly speaking) with American creativity.
Last year, one of my students (who has now returned to Shanghai) spoke about education in both countries:
http://www.channelone.com/video/education:-shanghai/
She saw the good in both systems (and distinguished between Shanghai schools and Chinese schools overall).
It is difficult to find a happy medium–but I believe that it exists.
We cannot make test scores the goal of education. The tests are not good enough to merit deification.
I agree; I have made similar points many times. I wasn’t proposing making test scores the goal of education.
I got entrenched in an argument with a few school choice people on this website (http://jaypgreene.com/2012/09/24/florida-education-association-bemoans-their-self-imposed-exile/) earlier this week. One brought up successful South Korean schools with fifty students in each class as a counterargument to me attempting to give Florida’s class size reduction laws some credit for our state’s academic gains.
I replied by saying that our teachers can start teach like Asian teachers, but as a country, we will need to start raising our kids in the same manner they are raised in that culture.
People do not understand that education is a cooperative endeavor between all parties involved. In America, we are constantly making it all about the teachers. Yes, the teacher is the most impactful entity on student achievement in the school building, but things that happen on evenings and weekends impact learning as well.
You hear much less about specifically what countries “outperform” us because that would lead to open discussion regarding how we could either: 1) filter/track students to paths we might assume they would perform well in or 2) move towards a more equitable society and respected autonomous education system. Either option is unpalatable, but what you see happening is a veiled form of the former/avoidance of the latter.
Instead of building up the people that could build up education for all, reform has been a “death by a thousand cuts” approach, looking to dismantle public education, unions, and the middle class to reform schools into money-makers as opposed to society-builders.
There was a very revealing report on NPR a few weeks back about schools in China and how parents are actually opting (those that can afford) to send their kids abroad for school rather than subject them to the rigors of that pedagogy.
This is an interesting article written by a student in the West Hartford schools. West Hartford is an affluent suburb of Hartford, CT.
http://www.courant.com/news/opinion/hc-op-fresh-talk-teach-students-to-analyze-peng-09-20120925,0,6151836.story
She speaks about why her parents came to America:
Our schools are quickly deteriorating to be like the systems of countries such as China, where students are treated like machines and expected to learn vast amounts of material in short periods of time. In these systems, cutthroat competition is the name of the game and collaboration is unheard of.
My wife’s school here in CT has developed an international program in which they take on and board a large number of Chinese students, whose parents definitely think it is worthwhile to get them out of Chinese schools. One disturbing thing that the teachers have noticed is how bereft of critical thinking skills they are. When asked higher order thinking questions in class, they freeze up and ask “what do you want me to say?”
Jay Mathews should also be recognized for bringing to light Michelle Rhee’s made up Baltimore Miracle.. I believe he was willing to go out on a limb on that because his wife was working on the cheating that occurred in DCPS under Michelle Rhee’s watch.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/class-struggle/2011/02/how_ed_harris_got_the_rhee_sco.html
This goes for ALL comparisons between the U.S. and other countries, including Finland. Completely different populations, apples and oranges.
One thing Asian countries do right is to teach deep rather than wide. As a NYC public school teacher, I could not believe the number of concepts that are tested after 7 months of school (down from 6 months). It’s just too much. Every year we just review the same concepts because the pacing calendar only gives each concept 2-3 days to master. It is my understanding that Asian countries delve deeply into concepts before going on to the next. Not a bad idea.