Catching Up or Leading the Way --Yong Zhao

Questions prior to reading the book...
(documentary - 2 million minutes--check it out)

1. Teachers within the schools are challenging themselves to be better teachers, create PBL, allow students to discover information and use higher level thinking, differentiate instruction, ask students to complete authentic assessments only to be judged by a standardized test that measures low level knowledge questions.  --- just not right.

---Zhou regarding students-- what do we want? a diversity of talents, of individuals who are passionate, curious, self-confident, and risk taking; or a nation of excellent test takers, outstanding performers on math and reading tests

            soooo ---- Asian countries are reforming away from standardized tests in favor of: local autonomy, flexibility, more choice, less testing, less content, less standardization

2. What was our educational system like when the US was at the top of the world economically/militarily/etc? Has national control over the educational system along with the cutting of programs such as music/arts/shop as well as content courses such as social studies in the elementary and middle school ages aide in the decline in the US? Now that we have unlimited technology at our finger tips; what is it that is important for our students to know?  --- Is the US upsetting the idea of federalism by becoming so involved with local education?

3. ---is education related to a country's success? or is it the overall approach to education  and the activities associated with / way teachers/students interact - academic knowledge or big idea approach??  creating innovative students cannot be taught from a text book

4. -are students with a free spirit more apt to be innovative?

    - after school activities  - much less time spent in Asia / what is connection between participation and student performance
BUT - high scores but low ability - education geared to achieving high scores can harm individual and the purpose it is supposed to serve
(Collateral Damage - How high stakes testing corrupts america's public schools - Nichols and Berliner

suicide - #1 killer of chinese between 15 and 34
It is okay to hold educators accountable, but how can they be held accountable for student achievement on tests in which the teachers are told not to give in their classrooms; as quality teachers use rigorous and relevant lessons with authentic assessments and then give standardized tests with pinpoint questions.

Book review/reflections

Is America throwing away an educational system that respects individual talents, supports divergent thinking, tolerates deviation, and encourages creativity? Is the government dictating what students learn or how teachers teach?  The United States is trying to get rid of the educational system that China wants and is implementing the system in which China wants to get rid of...

Innovative people cannot come from schools that force students to memorize correct answers and regurgitate dictated spoon fed knowledge

-test oriented education vs talented oriented education.....
-2 paths - destroy strengths to catch up with others in test scores and the other is building  our strengths so that we can keep the lead in innovation and creativity

Bill Gates - America's high schools are obsolete; schools are broken, flawed, and underfunded, but even when they're working exactly as designed they cannot teach our kids what they need to know today because it's the wrong tool for the times
     -25% do not graduate on time (___% at starmont); 70% 8th graders cannot read at grade level (___%)


NCLB - standardization and centralization; what is happening?

schools must work to cultivate a diversity of talents, global competence, and digital competencies to cope with a world that has been chagned by globalization and technology

Missle gap during 1960s presidential campaign - Kennedy over Nixon to the learning gap....

ed consultant, Paul Hurd,  - We are raising a new generation of Americans that is scientifically and technologically illiterate
   -Need: new basics: 4 yrs/English, 3/math, science, social studies, semester of computer; longer days/longer school year; better teachers and teaching; higher expectations for academic performance - rigourous and measurable standards; gov't should hold educators accountable

quality of education is an extremely complex phenomenon that cannot be easily demonstrated or understood

schools should prepare students to use their minds well so they may be prepared for responsible citizenship, further learning, and productive employment in our modern economy

    - the lack of standards and evaluation of (events) may be one of the greatest values of American education - value of individuality, inclusiveness, initiative and responsibility, message to community

students are given many second chances because educators believe every child can learn - multiple intelligences
  - given ample opportunity to experiment with different activities and programs before graduating from HS

Imperfect System
-inequalities between rich and power; outdated irrelevant and America-centric curriculum, lack of qualified teachers, and disengagement of teachers, and increasing faith in testing

China is fueled by cheap labor ; making things invented somewhere else