Surpassing Shanghai: What About Us?

By Michael Diedrich, Policy Associate, January 16, 2012 at 9:00 am

Last week, we looked at five different countries well-regarded for their education systems: China (specifically Shanghai), Finland, Japan, Singapore, and Canada (specifically Ontario). These countries' successes depend on many different factors, some of which do not apply to us, but we can still learn some things from them to guide our next steps in education policy.

International comparisons are always open to criticism. The mix of cultures in the United States is different than that in any of the other countries studied, and we have higher levels of economic inequality. Addressing that inequality would be one step (of many) that could help our schools do their job better.

Despite the differences, some commonalities emerge, and factors shared across countries as different as these five are worth consideration.

First, teaching is a higher status profession among top performers than it is in the United States. In some cases, like Japan, this deep-seated historical roots; in others, like Finland, it is the result of intentional public policy. This should tell us that it's time to put more energy into building up our corps of teachers rather than vilifying or denigrating them.

One of the major effects of teachers being regarded as true professionals is that “accountability” stops being something imposed via carrots, sticks, and test scores. Instead, accountability becomes a professional value reinforced by teachers, administrators, families, students.

That raises another thing we lack: student accountability. Yes, Minnesota has its three GRAD tests (in math, reading, and writing) required for high school graduation. The writing test is laughable, and the other two don't address the higher-level skills that are hallmarks of other systems' gateway exams. No other government tests as often as we do, but when they do, they use better tests (and they use their tests better).

One last point of consideration is scale. Our country is more populous and more diverse than these other countries, so it's uncertain that a single national policy is the best approach; what's best in Minnesota might not be best for California or Alabama. We would do well to look at Canada, where provinces have near total control over their education system and the federal government stays out of it. A Minnesota-specific approach – tailored to our needs by our experts and supported by our citizens – would be better than the current state/federal hodge-podge of No Child Left Behind, its waivers, and Race to the Top.

Posted in Education | Related Topics: K-12 education  Student Assessment  Teachers 

1 Comment

Bernice Vetsch says:

January 19, 2012 at 3:27 pm

The idea of getting the federal government out of state/local public education might be one of the best in recent years.

The federal Department of Education—or at least the administrations of successive presidents—seems intent upon forcing a one-size-fits-all plan upon every child and using the tests you mention to decide which teachers to punish and which schools to force to hire private tutoring firms or to become charters.

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