This is my review of Yong Zhao’s wonderful new book, Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Dragon? Why China has the Best (and the Worst) Schools in the World.
Zhao describes how test-driven the schools of China are and how this focus produces high scores but crushes creativity and individualism. Chinese educators want to free children of this oppressive system, he says, but their “success” on tests like PISA keeps them trapped.
There is an important warning here for us. We are trying to be like China. Yong Zhao says: Don’t.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Read last night the old-fashioned way. Print. Awesome book and review. Great examples and analogies. Food for thought. Should be required reading for all pols, govs, educators, and Congressional members. A PDF of the review would be a great start. A GoFunMe campaign would be even better. Keep rockin Diane. Keep rockin.
Should be GoFundMe. Had too much fun writing the comment.
If you do not have a subscription to the New York Review of Books, you will not be able to access the article. But you can access Yong Zhao’s introduction to the book at http://zhaolearning.com/2014/09/13/fatal-attraction-americas-suicidal-quest-for-educational-excellence/
I wish your article wasn’t behind a paywall! Thanks for sharing the link, though.
I read your review that was published by The New York Review of Books. Since I couldn’t leave a comment there, I’ll live it here.
“On December 3, 2013, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced yet again that American students were doing terribly when tested, in comparison to students in sixty-one other countries and a few cities like Shanghai and Hong Kong.”
Duncan is either extremely ignorant for someone in his position as the Secretary of the federal Department of Education or he is lying deliberately to the country, and I think he should be indicted, found guilty and sent to prison with no chance for parole. I think what he has done is treason.
How can I accuse him of having committed treason or being ignorant to the point of incompetence?
On January 15, 2013, Stanford released a report with this title: Poor ranking on international test misleading about U.S. student performance, Stanford researcher finds.
“As a result of the new information, the U.S. rankings on the 2009 PISA test in reading and math would rise, respectively, to sixth from 14th and to 13th from 25th after controlling for social class differences and a sampling error by PISA and after eliminating between-country differences that are statistically too small to meaningfully affect a country’s ranking.”
http://news.stanford.edu/news/2013/january/test-scores-ranking-011513.html
In addition, the Economic Policy Institute validated the Stanford report and posted a revised version on its website.
http://www.epi.org/publication/us-student-performance-testing/
Duncan claims that “American students were doing terribly when tested, in comparison to students in sixty-one other countries and a few cities like Shanghai and Hong Kong.”
If possible, I would ask Duncan, with the cameras rolling, how he explains 6th place in reading and 13th in math is “Doing terribly” when 6th place in the top 10% and 13th place is in the top 21%.
To state that in a different way: There are 55 countries that ranked below the U.S. in reading and 48 in math.
In fact, when we look closely at the Stanford report, the evidence shows that the United States out performs every OECD country on the PISA test for 15 year old students who live in poverty and are the most difficult and most at risk students to teach.
The Stanford study found that “Achievement of U.S. disadvantaged students has been rising rapidly over time, while achievement of disadvantaged students in countries to which the United States is frequently unfavorably compared – Canada, Finland and Korea, for example – has been falling rapidly.”
Stanford continued: “U.S. PISA scores are depressed partly because of a sampling flaw resulting in a disproportionate number of students from high-poverty schools among the test-takers. About 40 percent of the PISA sample in the United States was drawn from schools where half or more of the students are eligible for the free lunch program, though only 32 percent of students nationwide attend such schools.”
I’m going to take this further and allege that Arne Duncan deliberately manipulated the PISA test by manufacturing that sampling flaw that tested a disproportionate number of students from high-poverty schools among the test takers. If proven, wouldn’t this be fraud?
How many years would Duncan serve in a federal prison for deliberately falsifying the results of the International PISA test and then lying to the country about it repeatedly to achieve the Race to the Top, Common Core agenda that will eventually destroy the democratic public schools and turn America’s children over the private sector, for profit corporations?
18 U.S. Code 2381 says this about Treason: “Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason and shall suffer death, or shall be imprisoned not less than five years and fined under this title but not less than $10,000; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.”
18 U.S. Code 1031 – Major fraud against the United States: (a) Whoever knowingly executes, or attempts to execute, any scheme or artifice with the intent—
(1) to defraud the United States; or
(2) to obtain money or property by means of false or fraudulent pretenses, representations, or promises … The maximum fine imposed upon a defendant for a prosecution including a prosecution with multiple counts under this section shall not exceed $10,000,000 (and he could go to prison for 10 years)
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1031
The United States has long had the “dumbest” fourth graders in the world. But our adults have been among the most innovative and productive. And now we’re giving that up.
Unfortunately we have to pay a lot to read this
Sent from my iPhone
>
This and Anthony Cody’s THE EDUCATOR AND THE OLIGARCH recently arrived the same day to my doorstep.
Both are excellent reads.
And when added together: the sum is greater than the wonderful parts.
I strongly recommend both to everyone that is for a “better education for all.”
😎