President Obama has often said that American workers are the most productive in the world. In his 2011 State of the Union address, he said: “Remember -– for all the hits we’ve taken these last few years, for all the naysayers predicting our decline, America still has the largest, most prosperous economy in the world. (Applause.) No workers — no workers are more productive than ours. No country has more successful companies, or grants more patents to inventors and entrepreneurs.
Others agree: This came from a UN organization in 2009:
American workers stay longer in the office, at the factory or on the farm than their counterparts in Europe and most other rich nations, and they produce more per person over the year.
They also get more done per hour than everyone but the Norwegians, according to a U.N. report released Monday, which said the United States “leads the world in labor productivity.” Norway’s productivity is based on its vast oil wealth extracted from the sea.
Each U.S. worker produces $63,885 of wealth per year, more than their counterparts in all other countries, the International Labor Organization said in its report. Ireland comes in second at $55,986, ahead of Luxembourg, $55,641; Belgium, $55,235; and France, $54,609.
Yet the OECD put out a report saying that our population is actually quite dumb and is losing ground to other nations. The OECD report garnered headlines across the nation, because it reinforced the common but erroneous narrative that we as a nation are entering into a steep economic decline, all of which can be blamed on our faltering public schools.
Let me point out that this is the same refrain we have heard since the days of the Puritans. The younger generation is no good, we are going to hell and damnation, and soon comes the apocalypse, all the result of our sins (or in modern terms, our public schools). Since neither voucher schools nor charter schools outperform our public schools, this refrain is getting tiresome yet it persists.
It is also false.
As I explain in “Reign of Error,” these scare reports are wrong. First, they say that our college graduation rates are falling behind those of other nations, and we should be very, very upset. They never point out that our college graduation rate is almost double the college graduation rate of Germany, which is the most dynamic economy in Europe.
Then, they say that the jobs of the future will demand a huge increase in college graduates, but that is not what our own Bureau of Labor Statistics projects. The BLS projected that two-thirds of the jobs available between 2008 and 2018 would not need any post-secondary training. Most would require on-the-job training. Jobs for computer engineers and nurses require college degrees. But the larger number of jobs for home health aides, customer service agents, fast-food workers, retail salesclerks, construction workers, and truck drivers do not require college diplomas. (See pp. 88-89 of “Reign of Error” for citations.)
If we really want more college graduates, we should make all community colleges free to students. Our society, if it truly cares, should shoulder the burden of college costs so that more students can get the education they want but can’t afford. Colleges won’t get cheaper for students by producing data about cost and outcomes. They will get cheaper if more of the cost of attending college is assumed by government, not students.
For many years, there were free community colleges. Now there are few. Why?
Don’t complain about the college graduation rate unless you are willing to make the cost far, far lower to students.
And don’t believe for a minute that standardized tests are accurate measures of productivity. In 1964, our students scored last on the world’s first international test of mathematics, and we went on to outperform the other 11 nations that took the same test.
What we need more of is independent thinking, divergent thinking, innovation, ingenuity, responsibility, dedication, creativity–none of which is measured by the ability to check the right box on a standardized test.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Good point about the Puritans (Sinners in the hands of an angry God); I would dare say some are trying to bring about the apocalypse these days (so they can say told you so?? beats me).
I remember VICA (vocational clubs of American) being very active when I was in high school. Is stuff like that still going on? or 4H?
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FFA in our school.
OH, YEAH forgot! Future Farmers of America!
It’s a great program.
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One of my students is in a 4H group in her community.
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It makes one wonder how the United States managed to become a superpower without the institution of standardized tests to guide us pre-1776. (Tongue in cheek.)
Perhaps our fpunding fathers should have been given some bubble-response test to see if they were fit to lead in the first place.
Since we weren’t “data driven” from the outset, perhaps we should just hand ourselves back over to England….
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“. . . perhaps we should just hand ourselves back over to England….”
I’m sure the Bank of England wouldn’t mind!
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Just to be argumentative, I’ll suggest that the U.S. became a superpower not because Americans were smarter or better educated than the rest of the world, but because of intensely data-driven approaches to productivity, such as slavery (the ultimate reduction of human beings to data points) and the immense scale-up of mass-production manufacturing during WWII.
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Come on FLERP!, a man of your profession being argumentative? Wouldn’t believe it!!
What you said and the fact that the majority of the rest of the world’s industrialized countries at the time had much of their infrastructure and manufacturing facilities/capabilities destroyed by WWII which gave us a giant advantage which we have since squandered to the gods of Mammon-those rapacious riff raff who demand ever more lucre.
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Duane, yes, absolutely. I was trying to limit my points to “data-driven” policies of the U.S., but your point is equally if not more important.
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All the wealthy countries (democracies) of Western Europe have some form or version of universal health care and many of them have virtually free university education. The Scandinavian countries have very low child poverty rates (about 3% to 5%) and very high rates of unionization (from 50% to 65%). There is no war on unions in those countries, unions are not blamed for everything that goes wrong in those countries. Medicare for all would go a long way towards helping children be more successful in school and free university education would not burden graduates with horrible grinding debt obligations.
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Diane: I’ve got a quote even earlier than the Puritans. From Socrates:
“Our youth now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for their elders and love chatter in place of exercise; they no longer rise when elders enter the room; they contradict their parents, chatter before company; gobble up their food and tyrannize their teachers.”
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Mark Collins: excellent posting. Some of those old dead Greek guys could go off the rails too…even if in those days there were, er so to speak, no ‘rails to go off’ of.
🙂
Although, according to the latest edition of the Unconfirmed Book of Misquotations, the quote should have read: “Our cagebusting education rheephormers now love $tudent $ucce$$. They have bad manners, contempt for democracy; they show disrespect for parents and love idle chatter in place of genuine dialogue with scholars of education; they no longer refrain from punishing students when they enter their Centres of EduExcellence; they contradict their own numbers and stats, babble without end on MisEducation Nation; gobble up everyone else’s food and tyrannize the teachers of OTHER PEOPLE’S CHILDREN.”
Ok, ok, I can’t confirm to a 98% “Satisfactory” [thank you, Bill Gates!] the veracity of that quote, but as Dr. Steve Perry, “America’s Most Trusted Educator” points out: “Men lie and women lie but numbers don’t.”
The Unconfirmed Book of Misquotations is now #6,666,666 on Amazon. You can’t argue with that, now can you?
🙂
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Been wanting that quote for awhile. Thanks!
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I’m beginning to agree that maybe Americans are dumb. Not in an academic sense necessarily, but in common sense. Why would we keep putting out $63,885 worth of “wealth” when our cut of it is $44,389 (median income, before taxes)? Might as well just hand $20,000 a year to Jamie Dimon.
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As I read through this post, I can’t help but be reminded of Naomi Klein’s reasoning in SHOCK DOCTRINE in a frightening way.
The Shock Doctrine (from http://www.naomiklein.org/shock-doctrine)
In THE SHOCK DOCTRINE, Naomi Klein explodes the myth that the global free market triumphed democratically. Exposing the thinking, the money trail and the puppet strings behind the world-changing crises and wars of the last four decades, The Shock Doctrine is the gripping story of how America’s “free market” policies have come to dominate the world– through the exploitation of disaster-shocked people and countries.
The book traces its origins back fifty years, to the University of Chicago under Milton Friedman, which produced many of the leading neo-conservative and neo-liberal thinkers whose influence is still profound in Washington today.
The Shock Doctrine follows the application of these ideas through our contemporary history, showing in riveting detail how well-known events of the recent past have been deliberate, active theatres for the shock doctrine, among them: Pinochet’s coup in Chile in 1973, the Falklands War in 1982, the Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989, the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Asian Financial crisis in 1997 and Hurricane Mitch in 1998.
My concern or fear is that having used America’s “free-market” policies to dominate the world, there is one, last, obvious target for Friedman’s thinking – and that is to turn it on the US itself. Whether outsourcing labor and manufacturing, privatizing health care or even our military interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan, and now education, profit as a motive has taken over for any intrinsic or altruistic rationale for accomplishing nearly anything. Have we become capitalistic at the expense democratic?
Sorry. Perhaps my paranoia has me seeing privatizing (“piratizing”) phantoms where there are none. But then again, the financial chaos that might accompany a continued government shut-down could create some interesting financial opportunities for the very wealthy and / or well-connected. Friedman would approve.
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Thank you for addressing this. I heard the OECD report on a national news radio feed and I felt so angry. I immediately wanted to slash the report apart to extract the truth…thank you for being there to put it into perspective.
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I don’t wish to veer too far off of the topic, but I do believe these reports you site get to the heart if the “why” that we as a country are heading in this direction.
On one hand, some fear “socialism” because they, rightfully, object to Socialism. They fail to realize that ANY “ism” led by the wrong people can become dangerous.
The privatization of public services changes capitalism to Capitalism. That is dangerous because more and more of us are being disenfranchised. We have continual bombardment with doomsday predictions and mischaracterizations of working for “all” as somehow being tyrranical! Doublespeak if ever it existed.
Where better to start indoctrination than in the schools? Some feel that this has happened in order to encourage social changes to which they object and they use “Christianity” to mask their intent. So, Capitalism overtakes rather than heals.
Profits over humanity/health/society in the name of the free market.
“War is peace; freedom is slavery; ignorance is strength.”. Sure it is…
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“On one hand, some fear “socialism” because they, rightfully, object to Socialism”
Why “rightfully”? You realize that public education is a form of socialism, right? Same with universal health care. Roads. Post offices. The military, national guard and police. The Fire Department. Etc.
We could certainly argue about what should or shouldn’t be socialized, but “socialism” per se is nothing to object to. Most European countries are far more socialized than we are and they have a higher standard of living.
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Socialism v socialism. Capitalism v capitalusm . You misunderstand my point. We should not want Socialism but socialism is not to be feared. It is dependent on who is controlling the “ism”. It is when there is concentrated control of any “ism” that danger hides.
I know that the examples you listed are for the good of all and socialistic in motivation. We have those things for the greater good. I object to the fact that people don’t differentiate between the two. So we have people spreading fear where it is unwarranted. And some are falling for Capitalism when regulated capitalism is not benefiting the few. Terms are carelessly thrown around.
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Those who fear ‘socialism’ see it as only a step removed or perhaps equivalent to communism.
Back in ‘the day’ (late ’60’s), when I used to debate the domino theory that had us in Vietnam– with my mother (a lefty-fringe Catholic w/libertarian leanings)– she would argue that communism was directly opposed to Christianity, which in her enlightened, idiosyncratic view, required that each individual be free to follow his path to salvation. Perhaps what she was really against was totalitarianism, or the atheism of the communist states; I mention it only to point out that there is a strong strain of anti-socialism/ communism built right into the dogma of many a Christian church, especially today in fundamental Protestantism, which dominates the South and the Tea Party.
Meanwhile, my mother (at 85), no dummy, sees right through the shenanigans of the tricle-down Republicans & neoliberals; she arrived at progressivism by the late ’80’s.
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I concur.
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Let’s deal with reality. We are not doing a good job. I know too many people in business who have young people come for work who cannot even fill out a job app, make change, fill out an order form correctly or anything else. This problem comes from elementary school. Read the latest California Attorney General Report on truancy in elementary schools. They have been hiding this for years even against a guy like me by only using enrollment numbers in the grade by grade level not the enrollment and ADA numbers as there is for the district as a whole. So stupidly I assumed that these are elementary children and as a result of the enrollment steady through 8th grade everywhere I assumed that they came to school. No, not what it is. If you do not spend the time in elementary school what do you think happens when they get to high school? Well, just as my friend says “How am I as a high school history teacher supposed to be held accountable for my work when I receive students who are not even at the 5th grade level.”
This is the fault of the so-called academics in the universities. They are supposed to be doing the research and they train teachers. They are generally as dumb as dirt. Just in ivory towers. They do not have a clue. I can tell you as a matter of fact that when I show my information to any of them they are amazed and it is the simplest way to look at things to see what is happening. Everyone seems to be building a career and to hell with the children. As my friends grandfather taught him “I hear real good, but I see a whole lot better.” This is as true as it gets. Talk is cheap, all that matters is what you do. We never see academics with anything useful at LAUSD the second largest in the nation unless it is for money for some goofy project. They do not have a clue as to what is going on and think they are the only ones who know anything. They would have a bad day with us concerning data and facts through time. We have people with up to 55 years continuous experience nationwide.
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Not sure whom you are railing against– is it the Ed Depts at teacher schools? There is so much good research out there that could be of great help in developing appropriate pedagogical methods. Yet, as a foreign-language-ed person, when I review the current course reqts & syllabi at uni’s which back & my day & still 40yrs later have the rep for turning out the best FL teachers, what I see is a great divide between research and application. Then as now there seems to be little collaboration & less synthesis; one has to be at the graduate level before the best text on current language-teaching methods is introduced– not reqd for certification! & often as not the students of those courses are on the research track. Meanwhile BA’s with 1 semester student teaching are unleashed into the teaching force w/little or no mentoring, to stumble upon good methods on their own.
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Ouch. I was thrilled at your original post mentioning truancy and absenteeism.But then you blame academics for the problem. How is that any more reasonable than blaming teachers ? ( which I don”t) Some of us academics have been doing research on variables that impact low achievement and dropping out of schools for decades. Absenteeism is right up there as a major cause. There are some excellent evidenced based programs out there that have addressed the issue of truancy with success. Sorry you feel no academic cares about LAUSD but I did work in Inglewood schools when I was at UCLA 23 years ago and now I work in the schools on the east coast.We spend hundreds of hours providing free dissemination of best practices and training for the schools in dropout prevention. I work with many students in the high schools directly and my colleagues work in the elementary schools. I have no need to build my career and I spend my time preparing teachers, providing service to the schools and conducting research. Please do not generalize about all members of a group based on your personal experiences. If you would like research on truancy and absenteeism and effective programs I am happy to provide the information.
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I would argue that America’s success is riding the coattails of the great society that was built post WW 2. The stability, the meritocracy, the fulfillment of the puritan work ethic where there was real reward for hard work. Seems like some of that foundation for what the most productive and prosperous economy is built on is being eroded by chaos and rewarding not working at either end or just plain bad ideas.
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TC, I was born in 1938. My generation never took standardized tests. Neither did the “greatest generation.” The “meritocracy” composed of those with the highest test scores did not yet exist. And tax rates for the rich were very very high, far higher than today.
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To add to Diane’s points.
First, I noticed that no one has mentioned that the highest scoring countries are also the most “socialist”. The scores of the big capitalist countries are mostly below the test average.
Second, our success was indeed built after WW II , but consider that we ended the war with no damage to our cities, a casualty figure that was a pittance compared to our allies, a booming economy built on government spending for the war that could be converted immediately into a consumer economy, and an amazingly high moral esteem from the world. In contrast, all of our economic competitors had to reubuild their cities, suffered enormous casualties, and often had to suffer the pain of political realignment in the aftermath.
So, reward for hard work is great when your competitors are lying in ruin.
Third, the meritocracy you mention didn’t get started until the 1950s, and, as Diane alluded to, it really didn’t kick-in until the 1970s. Between then, we had a serious commitment to building and maintaining the middle class, largely driven by the “greatest generation”, who wanted to see the economic security FDR promised at the start of the War.
In the end, however, it was also the greatest generation who betrayed their children and grandchildren. When we had to start making tough choices in the ’70s, largely due to inflation caused by OPEC and the end of the Viet Nam War, the complaints about “moochers” and “waste” started from the likes of Howard Jarvis and championed by corporate America trumped any sane discussion of policy. The growing “Me Generation” also started our turn away from the sound policies that enabled our great years after the War.
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@moosensquirrels: let’s not forget the Marshall Plan & McArthur-led post-war rebuilding of Japan. Not saying they were a bad idea, but we helped create soon-to-be industrial rivals, who were able to rebuild on a literal tabula rasa w/then-current technology, while we were still mired in antique infrastructure. I remember watching cable TV in Germany in 1970 (it would be a long time before cable was all ’round the US), & Japan’s industries built on the ashes would be outdoing us in cameras & cars by the 1970’s, & selling us steel by 1979.
I totally agree with your implied point that the ‘greatest generation’ sold us out, but I believe that was in response to the challenge from abroad; our leaders instead of meeting the global challenge initiated the shell game to move money from the shrinking mfg pie into the hands of money mgrs which led to the gross inequalities we see today. The so-called ‘me-generation’, younger sibs of a generation which could afford to be idealistic on the coattails of a booming economy, was simply responding to the signals from govt, i.e., grab yours quick ’cause it won’t be around for long.
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Two points: first, in the current political economy of Anglo-American capitalism, productivity should be defined as fewer people doing more work for less money. All of the wealth generated by increases in productivity in recent decades has accrued to the 1%.
Second, the premises and conclusion of this report are preposterous when viewed through the lens of an economy that is not producing jobs at the rate of population growth, where increasing numbers of the jobs produced are temporary or contract work (precisely what so-called reformers want to turn teaching into) and where the overwhelming majority of current and projected future jobs – food service, home health care, etc. – do not require a college education and pay poverty or near-poverty level wages.
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“What we need more of is independent thinking, divergent thinking, innovation, ingenuity, responsibility, dedication, creativity–none of which is measured by the ability to check the right box on a standardized test.”
Acknowledging this and acting on it is our only way out of the mess we are in the midst of.
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Since culture: language, knowledge, literacy, manners, habits, lore, technical skills, etc.; has to be passed on anew to every generation (about 20 years, 30 years?) there is a permanent educational crisis and has been since the beginning of time. I The fact that it is permanently recurrent does not mean it is not real. t comes with the territory of being human.
Of course, it stands to reason that it would be of great help in transmission of knowledge to future generations if there were support for adult education, since imitation is one of the most effective and powerful types of learning among primates. Therefore funding adult literacy, community colleges, the arts, and educational media would make a lot of sense, since young people look to the actions of their elders more than their words, even. If mom and dad are taking courses and improving themselves, then children have more incentive to do the same.
Newt Gingrich and Ronald Regan were responsible for defunding educational television and radio. They reclassified commercial children’s television as educational and passed laws saying that public broadcasting had to justify itself by using the Arbitron ratings system every fifteen minutes (!) in order by qualify for government support. This was a nail in the coffin for educational programing. This is definitely not the case in other high- performing industrial nations. In NYC, even libraries are in danger of being sold to real estate developers, while are museum entrance fees are out of reach to the average person.
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Thank you, Harold, you are so right. During the same yrs that our gov was talking up the importance of a college ed for all– in order to compete globally– it was inexorably de-funding the sorts of mental stimulation needed by college grads: complex news coverage, art exhibits, plays– even literature: there was a supreme court decision in 1979 (Thor Power Tools) which had huge repercussions on the publishing industry; they could no longer keep low-selling books in inventory for long (the price of hardcover books suddenly jumped 4fold, & many titles went out of print– thank god for amazon & ebay jumping into the breach via the digital revolution).
The point is: the corporate narrative has taken over the ‘common-good’ narrative. College degrees (or STEM courses or whatever the narrative-du-jour) is corporate-speak for: give us a glut in the labor force so we can lower wages. ‘Common-good’ narrative (i.e., let’s do stuff that stimulates the intelligence of the populace) is seen by mgt as a frill whose elimination can be sold to the dummies as ‘big-gov interference’.
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Is anyone else’s blood pressure skyrocketing over the College Board press release that states SAT scores have been “stagnant” for five years? An increase in minorities and socioeconomically disadvantaged test takers, and scores have remained constant. It did provide a great opportunity to have a lesson in charged language in–of all places–an AP English language class. Simpson paradox, anyone?
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KathrynRose, do not forget that David Coleman, architect of the Common Core, is now running the College Board
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There’s no reason to reflexively dismiss the OECD test and the fact that Americans are willing to work longer hours and accept less vacation time than most others hardly disproves that their numeracy is in need of improvement. It is worthwhile to look at the OECD numbers in detail (http://www.oecd-berlin.de/charts/PIAAC/). They actually debunk the myth that today’s young Americans are less proficient than older generations. Look at the age breakdown.
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Necessary to approach with caution any pronouncements from University of Walton
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Really? I still have not read your latest book yet- sorry- but do you have the references for Walton influence over OECD? That is scary.
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Interesting: our fearless leader Arne Duncan looked at the same study & pronounced http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/10/08/20869527-us-in-a-real-state-of-crisis-education-secretary-says?lite – “US in a Real State of Crisis”, focusing in on the results that show 55-65-y.o.’s at top of int’l comparison in math, science, & literacy; 45-64y.o.’s average, & those younger, behind other nations. He chose study results as an incentive for national preschool & making college ‘more accessible & affordable’. What he didn’t say was: these numbers show that Americans who started public school in 1957-1967 fared better than successive generations….
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I deeply admire this blog and many of its contributors, but as one reader remarked, the readers are preaching to the choir a lot of the time.
I just read the article in question and I noticed that no one had posted a response, or at least one that was allowed to be posted. So I posted and I hope many more of us do the same. The people that need to see the other “side ” of the reformers argument are the people who read those articles that feed the reform frenzy. If you don’t already, please take a minute a post responses to them. I did, and I am making it a point to respond to others as I get the opportunity(see below ) Good gosh, there is certainly enough ammunition right here in the archives of this blog and of the bloggers who contribute to keep these buffoons very busy.
Thanks again for the tremendous work you do for our children Diane. God bless your efforts.
Ben Carson
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Another example of propaganda from the crowd that includes fear mongering politicians and lazy journalists who fail to do their research and jump at the chance to produce a sensationalized story. The attachments provide some insight into the real story of international test results as well as contradictory data.
Can take a bit of time to read, but it will open your eyes to the scam being foisted on the American public.
http://www.epi.org/blog/intern…
https://dianeravitch.net/2013/1…
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To all educrats and academics: Why is it that it took an Attorney General of a State, Kamala Harris, to figure out that elementary students do not come to school. Taken that as a given is it any wonder they do not do well in high school? It all starts in pre-K thru 3rd grade. Anyone want to contest that? Anyone who knows knows that all studies show that. So, if the student does not come to school in the earliest years, like pre-D thru 3rd grade, how are they supposed to do well in middle and high school. Academics where have you been? Collecting good salaries and talking with each other and doing nothing is what I say. If I had had access to the by grade level enrollment and ADA this would have been over long ago. It took an Attorney General of a State who was driven to stop this and find out the truth to get the data to reveal this simple truth. Do you mean to say that none of you highly paid professors who publish did not know this? If so, you are all losers and should give up your jobs in disgrace. This is your job and obligation and you get paid to do it. Enough is enough. Too much is at stake for silly games. Did any of you read the latest reports on global warming just released without the implications of the methane from the permafrost and methane hydrate crystals on the ocean bottom being taken into consideration? Wake up!!!!!!
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This data is collected yearly and is not a secret to anyone who wants to look it up.You could have looked this up at any time. Academics have done research on the attendance and truancy issue for years- and developed effective programs to improve attendance. I already offered to share some of it with you. But public policy is not always based on research as Diane has demonstrated. I am suprised you believe that just because academics have research and publish it, it means the policy makers follow it.
http://dq.cde.ca.gov/dataquest/SuspExp/suspexplrate.aspx?cYear=2011-12&cType=ALL&cChoice=dSusExpRt&cCDS=19647330000000&cName=Los%20Angeles%20Unified
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California has many programs dealing with hte issue- I am not sure how well they are funded or implemented but it is not like none is doing anything about it as you suggest.http://www.cde.ca.gov/ls/ai/
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I apologize for my typos. A few second search at the LAUnified site found their attendance manual and a manual for improving attendance. All data is available for any school and any district in any state for test scores, attendance, graduation, suspension, class size. All parents know this since they receive a school report card yearly.. All the data collected was mandated by law and online since NCLB. All teachers and academics know this.Sorry it was a secret from you George.
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I am totally against the NCLB and Race to the top. US educational system has become a business. Individuals and corporations are becoming richer and richer because of standardized tests. Needed monies for classroom supplies is being ignored because schools are paying people and companies to help students pass these tests. Then of cause you have to pay for the people who write the test, print the test and grade the test.State, federal and property taxes are beng wasted. And poor urban public schools because they lack a sound tax base, standardarized tests are being used to close their schools and open charter schools. Testing can not and will never test intellect. There is no such thing as critical thinking . If critical thinkers actually existed, then they would have critically realized that standardized tests can not determine if you will be successful in life, or whether you will go to college or graduate. US needs to stop competing with China and other foreign governments. US needs to develop a project based learning. Where students are learning in the classroom and then developing projects or coming up with ideas based on what they have learned in the classroom.Students need to learn how to do research, along with doing research papers and then defending their research. Other people need to stay out of education. I am sick and tired of people coming up with new terms such as rigor which absolutely makes no sense in education. And now the new term for teachers, good or effective . Maybe it is time for people to start rating standardized test as poor , useless and a money maker for individuals and corporations.
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