Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

Obama’s Good Idea

—

by

James A. Bacon
in

President Obama recently reprised his proposal for a longer school year. On Monday, Barack Obama was interviewed on NBC’s “Today” Show where he explained that a longer school year for American children would help close the gap between US school-children and kids from other countries. You can read more here.

This is not the first time that President Obama has made this point. In March, 2009 Obama made essentially the same point. The matter was reported by the Seattle Times. The article can be found here.

Barack Obama is basically right with his belief that American children spend too little time in school. However, he’s only scratching the surface. Our problems in education go beyond the hours per day or months per year that school is in session.

Here are just a few additional ideas for President Obama to consider:

Schools should be competitive. Many Americans wring their hands over the strengths of Japanese school-children, especially in math and science. Since I happen to be in Japan I asked a few people about the schools here. Their descriptions of education in Japan went beyond mere months per year. Japanese students must apply to the best high schools. And where you go to high school has a big bearing on where you’ll go to college and end up in life. This is Thomas Jefferson or Maggie Walker writ large. When I asked if this was fair they bluntly said, “No, but life’s not fair either.”

Schools should be intense. A Frenchman told me of his daughter’s semester abroad in America. She described her time in a top grade American school as a vacation. Her assigned homework was much less in America than in France. She loves her expanded social life but understands that her studies are slipping while she slacks off in America.

Schools should use cutting edge technology. One of my friends has a son attending a private school in Northern Virginia. Mandatory laptop computers for every high school student. The lessons are online, there is online tutoring and some homework assignment questions are instantly graded as either right or wrong – with an explanation. A new netbook computer costs about $450 (retail) and (arguably) could last all 4 years of high school. Is this really too much?

Teachers should be paid for performance. The teaching profession has become old, stale and obsolete in the United States. In New York City it’s so hard to get rid of under-performing teachers that there are special “rubber room” buildings to stockpile teachers while their performance reviews drag on – sometimes for years. You can read more here. Bad teachers should be dispensed with quickly. Good teachers should be paid more than they presently receive.

Barack Obama is wrong about many things. However, his continuing focus on education is admirable. I especially applaud his practical thinking – if you want to be good at something spend more time doing it.

Education is the only long term antidote to Boomergeddon.

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19 responses to “Obama’s Good Idea”

  1. E M Risse Avatar
    E M Risse

    Groveton:

    You are absolutly right on all accounts.

    And very Antipartisan at the same time.

    Good ideas all.

    But think how much easier it would be for the children in the 95 percent of the Households that are Urban to live in settlement patterns where access to a range of education opportunities would be easy and not involve a Bus.

    It would not take 'Manhattan.' The original plan for Columbia at only 10 persons per acre at the Alpha Village scale would have allowed students a home Neighborhood grade school or easy walking access to several alternatives and the same for middle and high schools.

    The plan was abandoned by education bureaucrats.

    Keep up the good work.

    EMR

  2. E M Risse Avatar
    E M Risse

    Oops, that is Alpha Community Scale.

    Sorry.

    EMR

  3. Larry G Avatar
    Larry G

    how big is competitive sports and other extra-credit, extra-curricula activities in Japan?

    Remember.. I've been saying for months if not years how much worse we are academically compared to other countries (more self hate I'm sure) and now.. FINALLY – Grovteon "gets it".

    Well Congratulations!

    We have fostered an entitlement "slack off" education mindset in this country.

    It not that compared to your Asian and European counterparts that your "A" sucks as a "D" in their systems.

    Nope.. as long as you can take GOLF and photo journalism and Latin IV… it matters not that you are essentially functionally illiterate at using critical thinking to solve real world problems with math and science.

    Over here – we simply don't care if Johnny can get his butt into UVA or VaTech… because what happens in Japan and Europe stays in Japan and Europe and college education is what you need to succeed in this country – even if your resume is bogus….

    I would submit that we as a country have been conducting ourselves as Prima donnas and now that the Prom is over we see those ugly zits on our nose and butt and don't like it.

    But if someone points this out – we "hate" our country.

    We are rotting at the core in this country .. and blaming it on everything and everybody instead of taking some personal responsibility for the problems.

  4. Larry G Avatar
    Larry G

    .

  5. Gooze Views Avatar
    Gooze Views

    Groveton,
    Groovy on all points.
    Galuszka

  6. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    The public education system is largely dedicated to the preservation of jobs over reforms that could improve the quality of education and controlling costs. This is true in bad districts such as Washington, D.C., and in good districts such as Fairfax County. We could pay teachers more without spending more if we were to eliminate much of the non-teaching hoard. I think Obama gets this more than some. Whether we see the job cuts that permit reform is an open question.

    TMT

  7. Groveton Avatar
    Groveton

    I asked about competitive sports in Japan. I was told that the schools have a number of competitive sports teams. However, the interest in playing on the teams is far less intense than in the United States. One person who has lived in both countries told me that his kids made the top teams in the Japanese schools whereas they could not make the top teams in American schools.

    The academics in Japan are so intense that the athletics become, by nature, secondary. The athletics exist. There are competitive sports. However, education is job 1 and many children do not have the energy required for both. I guess it's like a person who has a full time demanding job. Some percentage of such people have the drive to work their jobs and remain competitive ameteur athletes. Most do not. Choices are made.

    EMR's point about density is a good one. The Japanese system of applying to public high schools based on your academic skills seems like it would be challenged in the rural areas of Japan. My bet is that few of Japan's leaders come from rural education systems but I'll ask around.

    TMT is probably also right about the level of spend. That's a pretty detailed question for my friends from Japan but I'd bet that spend per pupil data is available.

    I'll continue asking about education in Japan until I have to leave. I'd really like to better understand their approach to health care as well. Unfortunately, I have to conduct some business while I am here. I can't spend all te time asking about Japanese society.

  8. Larry G Avatar
    Larry G

    Education spending (% of GDP)

    37 United States 5.7%
    93 Japan 3.6%

    http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/edu_edu_spe-education-spending-of-gdp

    3 United States: $7,764.00 per student
    # 4 Norway: $7,343.00 per student
    # 5 Denmark: $7,200.00 per student
    # 6 France: $6,605.00 per student
    # 7 Italy: $6,458.00 per student
    # 8 Germany: $6,209.00 per student
    # 9 Japan: $5,890.00 per student

    http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/edu_spe_per_sec_sch_stu-spending-per-secondary-school-student

    it's not just how much is spent per student. it's what it is spent on.

    No school system that I know categorizes it's expenditures in terms of core academic and other major categories such as sports and course electives because we fund any/all school programs that are remotely associated with education from core academic offerings to the fringes like Golf and Cheerleading.

    Core academics in this country have to compete with other programs that are also demanded and taxpayers pick up tab – usually after a knock-down ..drag-out over property taxes.

    And make no mistake – property taxes making living in Fairfax less affordable and related to decisions to commute to exurban jurisdictions.

    and even Fairfax has problems with the white – non-white disparity in graduation:

    White: 92%
    Black: 73%
    Hispannic 57%
    Econ Disadv 62%

    https://p1pe.doe.virginia.gov/reportcard/report.do?division=29&schoolName=All

    this is despite spending more than 12K per student which is MORE THAN TWICE what Japan spends.

  9. Larry G Avatar
    Larry G

    When we talk about govt and local control – and ideas like getting rid of the Dept of Education – what would that actually do to education?

    Would we have national standards?

    National Goals?

    Would we even be able to compare …say Fairfax to Fredericksburg without a state or fed level accounting process?

    Would an "A" in Fairfax equal to an "A" in Fredericksburg?

    Would we know what the average SAT score is at Fairfax or would that be personal information and not collected or reported as statistics?

    How would parents know how their school compared or not to other schools…. ????

    this is where the Alpha community scale tends to cause questions.

    I think we all take for granted our "standardized" world whether it be graduation statistics or the size and dosage of aspirin or cell phone frequencies or license plates.

    how do we get local control without losing standards?

  10. Hydra Avatar
    Hydra

    I thought it amusing that as soon as tests are used to grade teachers, the teachers begin saying "Aw, those tests don't mean anything."

    Which was pretty much my argument since 5th grade.

  11. Hydra Avatar
    Hydra

    "The low population density areas of Kentucky tend to be the coal-producing areas. Quality-of-life measures in the coal-producing areas tend to be lower than the quality-of-life measures found elsewhere in these two states. Their quality-of-life variables included income, employment, education, health care, and housing. Thus, the rural areas of Kentucky tend to be less appealing in terms of living habitat.
    At the other extreme are the areas of high population density. The values of inner-city quality-of-life measures are low and have been declining over the past several years, as well. Therefore, quality-of-life measures are considered to be low in both highly rural and highly urban areas relative to other areas.
    To the extent that quality-of-life measures are low both in highly rural and highly urban areas relative to other areas of the state and that such measures reflect actual perceptions by location, one would expect out-migration of relatively mobile resources from these areas to have occurred. The individuals who are more likely to out-migrate would be those who have greater career opportunities and stronger incentives for higher educational achievement. Such individuals tend to come from high-level socioeconomic backgrounds that correlate highly with mental abilities (Charters, 1963). Thus, individuals with higher cognitive skills would be expected to have out-migrated from both highly rural and highly urban areas to other areas of the state. This out-migration leaves those areas with resources that are potentially less mobile and individuals who exhibit lower socioeconomic characteristics. These individuals have generally been considered not to place a high regard on education because of their inability to foresee high returns to education within such regions."

    A Note on Student Academic Performance: In Rural Versus Urban Areas
    American Journal of Economics and Sociology, The, July, 1999 by Melvin V. Borland, Roy M. Howsen

    ===================================

    Money matters, and low quality education tends to come from places where less money is spent on education and the parents themselves have less income.

  12. Larry G Avatar
    Larry G

    If we look at tests and testing from an international perspective (search for PISA) – The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is a worldwide evaluation of 15-year-old school pupils' scholastic performance,

    they DO have MEASUREABLE benchmarks of very specific things – not memorization but capabilities.

    Can the student …."do this" or can he "articulate how to do that"?

    as opposed to remembering the 10 big world capitals or some such.

    It's called "critical thinking" and LITERACY – not only language but science and math – in a technological world.

    and the easiest example of this is something like a chemistry or physics word problem that describes a real world problem that needs to be solved.

    Our education system has diverged from this to … memorization of "facts" and I assert has led our culture to expect to understand concepts in sound bites and to view difficult things as "too complicated".

    A good example of this is how little we really do know about our government.

    Most people, for example, do not realize that SS and Medicare are funded from a dedicated source – FICA – and that when we talk about CURRENT deficits – that the money coming in from FICA – EXCEEDS the money being paid out.

    So we end up with this "bloated", "incompetent" govt narrative that 99 out of 100 do not truly understand the facts much less the dynamics.

    In a word, us Americans have gotten to be lazy Prima Donnas who no longer want to put the time and effort, the hard work into achieving a deeper understanding of how the technological world actually does work

    and as a result – we went from number 1 in education achievement to 15th and worse depending on the subject.

    this goes directly to our schools – primarily our secondary schools.

    We do not bad in international comparisons at the 4th grade level.

    but at the 15 year old student level – we…in a word – SUCK.

    and it's because we are more interested in competitive sports and golf and cheerleading than what makes a lithium battery "work".

    as long as we get a college-ready "resume" – we think we are good to go – and we are most certainly not.

    When we talk about outsourcing, it's not only the cost of the employee – it's the QUALITY of the employee and we are now losing to other countries on BOTH POINTS.

  13. Hydra Avatar
    Hydra

    "…we find a negative relationship between being overweight and GPA. We also find that the negative relationship is more pronounced in urban areas than in rural areas. The quantile regression estimate indicates that the magnitude of the relationship
    between youth’s GPA and being overweight depends on the GPA quantile in question."

    The Academic Cost of Being Overweight: Rural vs. Urban Area
    Differences – A Quantile Regression Approach
    Christian Nsiah
    Black Hills State University
    Prathibha V. Joshi
    Gordon College

    =================================

    There may be diffferences in academic performance between rural and urban areas that have nothing to do with being rural or urban, but are reflections of other factors. Those factors may be differentiated as being common in rurla or urban areas without being caused by rurality or urbanity.

  14. Hydra Avatar
    Hydra

    It is one thing to evaluate statistically the results from a large number of students taking a large number of tests.

    It is quite another thing to evaluate the performance of an individual student or an individual teacher, based on some test.

  15. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    Academic rigor can be found in U.S. public schools and not. My daughter, who is a freshman at NC State and a graduate of Langley HS, has been telling me that college seems easier than high school. She did quite well at Langley (many AP courses), but was certainly not at the top of her class.

    But does this same rigor apply to all Fairfax County high schools beyond Langley, McLean, Oakton, Madison and the like? Does it reach the bulk of our students who are clearly in the middle?

    TMT

  16. Larry G Avatar
    Larry G

    TMT – if you look at the NAEP and PISA – you will find that a majority of our students 2/3 or more do not meet the standards for world-class achievement in critical thinking and problem solving.

    only about 10% of the kids rank in the advanced proficiency categories in Fairfax and other top schools

    worse than that – look at the numbers I posted yesterday for non-white and economically-disadvantaged graduation percentages.

    it is horrible.

    each one of these kids is not going to become net taxpayers but instead depend on entitlements from other taxpayers – i.e. the "other" kids in their class who DID graduate.

    College is not much better in the curriculums that are not "hard science" curricula.

    there are a ton of people in this country who are college graduates – who could not pass European High School tests in science and math.

    Groveton did give this president credit – for recognizing the realities …. and more important – telling the parents, the students, and the teachers and the teacher unions.

    we have a fundamental failure in taking responsibility for our failed education system.

    It's all about blame and the same folks who blame – don't want the reforms if those reforms affect them.

    It's the old and tired …. blame the institution.. school, govt, etc… but don't do anything that affects my interests even if it's part of the bigger problem.

  17. Larry G Avatar
    Larry G

    academic "rigor" in Va says that 60% of our kids are "proficient" but NAEP standards (which are aligned with OCED world standards) says that Virginia's kids are about 30% proficient.

    70% of Va. kids could not pass a European and Japanese "proficiency" test in math and science literacy and critical thinking.

    And we have a ton of excuses about this – ranging from "their tests are different from our tests" to " it's the parents fault" to "it's the teachers fault".

  18. Larry G Avatar
    Larry G

    Here's the bottom line in Public Education:

    https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0BzajQVNNRK3BZDRlMjRhY2MtMGE2Ny00NDkwLWFmMWEtZWYzN2U3NTc2NmE5&hl=en&authkey=CPOn5sgL

    this is why we tax people for schools folks.

    otherwise – we'd just make each parent pay to send their kid to whatever kind of school they could afford.

  19. Larry G Avatar
    Larry G

    once more:

    http://goo.gl/smU2

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