I thought I would move away from Real Estate with a post that everyone should read and take as a wake up call. I heard a little bit of it on the radio and then read the article in the NY Times (Of course in the Internet versions). I am not going to go into the details of the testing if you would like you can look that up. The Organization for Economic Coorperartion and Development(OECD) gives this test, Program for International Assessment (PISA), to 15 year olds.
The test was given in 65 countries and all the administrators/educators were blown away by the fact that Shanghai, as a city, came in first in many of the categories. Although not a good standard to judge China as a whole, since it is an educational and industrial magnet that draws from all over the country, it can show the future. One of our leading educators compared it to the Sputnik awakening of 50 years ago. Stating if China can do this with Shanghai in 2009 , perhaps they can do this in 10 cities by 2019 and 50 cities in 2029. Secty of Education, Duncan, calls this a wake up call
The United States came in 23rd or 24th compared to other developed countries with Shanghai leading in most categories. There are people who will quibble about the results and how they were achieved but Duncan said we should face the brutal truth that we are being out educated.
The average math score in the United States put them behind 30 other countries. PISA scores are on a scale with 500 as an average. 2/3 of the participating countries score between 400 and 600. In math Shanghai scored 600, Singapore 562, Germany 513 and the United States 487 just to name a few. In Science Shanghai 573, Finland 554, US 502 23rd place on par with Poland, Ireland, Norway, and France. In reading Shanghai 556, S Korea 539 and the US at 502 being on par with many western countries.
I can go on and on, the point is economically we are all coming to realize who is going to be pulling our purse strings. Educationally China with all of Asia are pulling further and further away from Western Countries with the US falling further behind.
Our priorities are screwed up. We cannot pay Basketball Stars $100 million dollar contracts, movie stars $25 million a picture and then cut back on classroom teachers. The quality of our teachers is absurd. Middle class families keep digging themselves deeper in debt because they cannot send there kids to public schools. Kindergarten costs $20K a year , 7th grade $25K a year for private education. People who have no money, mortgage there houses, borrow and beg because they know public eduction will leave there kids running a race with there legs tied.
Please do not take this to mean that I do not believe in public education. I also do believe many studens thrive in public education, I am a product of PS 176 and PS 147 back in NY. Public education needs to be fixed. Tax the 50% highest paid athletes and movie stars 20% for education…… IMAGINE!!!!
