How to Remake Education

[Cees Binkhorst]

REPLY TO: D66 at nic.surfnet.nl

Dus de Amerikanen gaan 180 dagen naar school, Japanners en Duitsers 240.
Gaan wij geen 40 weken van 5 dagen?

Groet / Cees

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/27/magazine/27toolssidebar2-t.html
September 27, 2009
How to Remake Education

Beyond Testing

The single biggest problem in American education is that no one agrees on
why we educate. Faced with this lack of consensus, policy makers define
good education as higher test scores. But higher test scores are not a
definition of good education. Students can get higher scores in reading
and mathematics yet remain completely ignorant of science, the arts,
civics, history, literature and foreign languages.

Why do we educate? We educate because we want citizens who are capable of
taking responsibility for their lives and for our democracy. We want
citizens who understand how their government works, who are knowledgeable
about the history of their nation and other nations. We need citizens who
are thoroughly educated in science. We need people who can communicate in
other languages. We must ensure that every young person has the chance to
engage in the arts.

But because of our narrow-minded utilitarianism, we have forgotten what
good education is.

DIANE RAVITCH
Ravitch is a historian. Her book ‘‘The Death and Life of the Great
American School System’’ will be published in February.

Tech Is The Key

Technology has transformed communications, increased the efficiency of
retailing and helped elect a president. But because education is largely
protected from incentives and consequences, it lags in embracing
technology.

That must and will change. At a New York City pilot program, School of
One, for example, each student has a daily ‘‘playlist’’ tailored to their
instructional level, interests and learning style. The school blends
online learning, small group sessions and tutoring. It’s a vivid picture
of the shift from age cohorts slogging through a textbook to personalized
digital learning.

This fall, about two million K-12 students will be learning online at home
and at school (about 4 percent of the national student body). By 2020, I
believe most high-school students will do most of their learning online.
It shouldn’t take that long, but it will.

New tools already make possible a generation of schools that blend the
best of online and on-site learning. They will be less expensive and more
fun, delivering excellence with equity.

TOM VANDER ARK
Vander Ark invests in edu-entrepreneurs and blogs at EdReformer.com.

Do Away With B.A.

Discredit the bachelor’s degree as a job credential. It does not signify
the acquisition of a liberal education. It does not even tell an employer
that the graduate can put together a logical and syntactically correct
argument. It serves as rough and unreliable evidence of a degree of
intelligence and perseverance — that’s it. Yet across much of the job
market, young people can’t get their foot in the door without that magic
piece of paper.

As President Obama promotes community colleges, he could transform the
national conversation about higher education if he acknowledges the B.A.
has become meaningless. Then perhaps three reforms can begin: community
colleges and their online counterparts will become places to teach and
learn without any reference to the bachelor’s degree; the status
associated with the bachelor’s degree will be lessened; and colleges will
be forced to demonstrate just what their expensive four-year undergraduate
programs do better, not in theory but in practice.

CHARLES MURRAY
Murray is the W. H. Brady scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and
the author of ‘‘Real Education: Four Simple Truths for Bringing America’s
Schools Back to Reality.’’

Intervene Earlier

When I began investing philanthropically in 2000, I wanted to address
achievement gaps. In searching for answers, I spoke with John Mackiel,
superintendent of Omaha’s public schools, where I sent my own children. He
emphasized early education. It wasn’t impossible for disadvantaged
students to catch up later — just a lot harder, and costlier.

Looking for a program to replicate in Omaha, I found Educare, on Chicago’s
South Side. Inside Educare, kids facing the worst odds find, beginning at
birth, a full-day, full-year oasis. Visit and you’ll see highly trained
teachers, down on the floor, talking, singing and inspiring.

Today, 8 Educares are open across America, with 12 more in the pipeline,
each supported by partnerships of local philanthropies, public schools and
early childhood providers. Educares provide a lever to improve state and
federal policies: they show policy makers what ‘‘high quality’’ looks like
and what investment can produce. Educare students come close to national
norms by the time they reach kindergarten. That is big news, and a solid
investment in human capital.

SUSIE BUFFETT
Buffett is chairwoman of the Buffett Early Childhood Fund.

More Time In School

Our schools were designed to prepare children for jobs that predominated
in the 1930s. Children didn’t need a thorough education for manufacturing
jobs. Summers were for working in the fields with your hands, not
sharpening your mind. One result is that we have one of the shortest
school years in the industrialized world. When you look at our (roughly)
180 school days in comparison with Japan and Germany (about 240), you see
how our children are underprepared for competition almost from Day 1.

To properly prepare American children, we must take on the adults who
oppose change. Some educators and unions won’t even consider working
longer hours or a longer school year. I believe teachers must be paid
decent salaries like their peers — doctors and lawyers — and work the same
hours that most professions demand. National success will not be based on
how much iron ore was mined but on how many children can access the new
international currency: intellectual prowess.

GEOFFREY CANADA
Canada is president and chief executive of Harlem Children’s Zone.

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