By Daniel Ward, Editor, Language Magazine
posted
Jan 31, 2013
It's been over a month since Team USA 4th Grade did their
coaches, American public school teachers, proud by coming fourth in
the world's reading rankings. Yet, there's been very little
celebrating in this country of ours so famous for making the most
out of success in international competition. An Olympic Bronze in
synchronized swimming would have garnered more praise.
According to the 2011 PIRLS (Progress in International Reading
Literacy Study,) the only countries with better 4th Grade reading
levels are Russia, Finland, and Singapore. Hong Kong was also
listed as outperforming us, but it's not a country. This is a
remarkable success for U.S. public education, especially when you
take into account that we have 48 million public school students of
which at least 10% are English Language Learners - that's about
five million students - almost equivalent to the total population
of Finland.
In addition, U.S. schools and teachers have to deal with
disproportionate levels of poverty, and research has proven
unequivocally that poverty is the most important determining factor
in educational outcomes. According to census statistics, more than
16 million American kids (nearly 25%) live in poverty, whereas
Finland's childhood poverty rate is about 5%. There are no official
statistics out of Singapore but the wealthy city-state offers a
relatively comprehensive social safety net for locals, borne out by
the fact that 80% of Singaporeans live in public housing, the
purchasing of which is subsidized, so 90% own their own homes.
Reliable Russian poverty statistics are elusive but anecdotal
evidence suggests that while poverty levels may be very high but
education is a top priority.
Fourth may not be a medal spot but surely some good news about
the educational achievements of our "failing" public schools
warrants at least a pat on the back of our oft-maligned
teachers.
Of course, the value of these international comparisons based
upon standardized tests is questionable. However, when U.S.
students perform poorly on such comparisons, we never hear the end
of it. What happened to South Korea, which the President recently
hailed as having an exemplary education system? Indeed, the
nation's whole attitude to schools and teachers is based upon the
presumption that our schools are overfunded and underperforming
compared to their overseas counterparts.
A whole industry is based upon this presumption - Waiting for
Superman's Michelle Rhee has pledged to raise $1 billion through
her lobbying organization, StudentsFirst, to overhaul the public
education system according to her reform tastes. Raising that kind
of cash will be tough enough without having to deal with the
adverse publicity that U.S. educational success might create.
Contrary to accepted wisdom, and many reports, we're not
spending relatively more than other countries to get these
results.
According to a new report the Economist Intelligence Unit, the
U.S. spends less than 22% of its GDP on education compared to
Finland's 30% and the UK's 26%. Figures are unavailable for Russia
or Singapore but even Hong Kong clocks in at 23.5%.
It is vital for us to recognize the successes as well as the
failures of our schools. Too many people are being misled by
reports that to not show a complete picture about the condition of
our educational system. In turn, this is leading to bad decisions
and the misuse of public funds. Of course, we should always be
striving to improve our schools but we must also recognize what
does work and give credit where credit's due.
Daniel Ward is the editor of Language
Magazine in Los Angeles, CA.
