Arthur Levine, the former president of Columbia University’s Teachers College and the president of the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, tells us what we can learn from other countries.
“We live in a world in which our children aren’t competing for jobs against people in the next town — they’re competing for jobs against people in other countries. It’s critical that we understand how our students compare to those students.“ “I think some things work and some that don’t, and they’re culturally specific. We’d be foolish not to try to learn from what they do and see what’s worthy of importing.”
In the US we have the wrong incentives. We produce far too many elementary school teacher and not enough STEM teachers in higher grades. In Finland, teacher colleges are much more selective. “Paying more is an important issue, but in Finland they don’t pay more. It’s simply a higher status profession. We can make it a more selective profession, by taking only the top of those who apply. If we were able to improve working conditions for teachers, and the leadership they find in their schools, and their freedom to teach and the professional development they receive, the job would be more appealing. Increasing selectivity raises stature and increases retention.” In the countries whose students are near the top of international rankings people consider blaming demographics an excuse.
Find out what's happening in Salemfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
“Why are Asian countries always clustered in the top ranks?
They are countries that start earlier. They work longer. They work better. They just do a better job of educating kids in those areas than we do."Kids are capable of learning about mathematics much earlier than we thought. Yes, we can begin earlier, but we also need to spend more time on those subjects, and make them more comprehensible to students."
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/18/opinion/q-a-with-arthur-levine.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20131218&_r=1&
