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Great Schools - A Must In The Global Economy |
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| By William H. Guenther | |||||||||
| In a recent conversation with Thomas Friedman of The New York Times, Intel CEO Craig Barrett asserted that his company could continue to excel without ever hiring another American. While denying any intention of doing so, Barrett decried our nation’s failure to produce world-class math and science graduates and highlighted how essential it is for the United States to compete successfully for technology-based jobs in the global economy. |
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Economists estimate that, with the arrival of capitalism in China, India and Eastern Europe, at least 150 million new workers have been added to the global talent pool. Today, China is graduating four times as many engineers as the United States. Japan, with only half our population, graduates twice as many engineers as we do. Bill Swanson, CEO of Raytheon (a defense contractor that is often required to hire US citizens), recently warned, “A day of reckoning is approaching for this region, and for our country, in engineering and science—unless we take steps now to change the course.” |
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Given these challenges, the United States today is in an unenviable position: The 2003 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), which tests 15-year-olds for math literacy and problem solving, analysis, and real-world skills, ranked the U.S. 25th out of 41 developed nations. |
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Global competition has made education reform an economic imperative for our entire nation. The choice is simple. Do we change the way our public schools operate, or do we leave our children a legacy of potential economic decline? |
| Just over a decade ago, educational and political leaders here in Massachusetts committed to what was then a radical and controversial goal: at least 95 percent of the class of 2003 would pass a high-stakes test in English and math that would redefine the academic standard for high school graduation. This ambitious goal has been partially achieved! Massachusetts is now recognized as a national leader in standards-based education reform. |
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Despite this accomplishment, and Massachusetts’ impressive ranking on national tests, the Technology Road Map study, published last year by Mass Insight Corporation and Battelle, a technology-based economic development consulting firm, documented the 20 year erosion in Massachusetts’ market share of academic and industry research. That erosion and a profound desire to promote academic achievement for Massachusetts’ citizens, has inspired Mass Insight Education and Research Institute and its partners to organize the Great Schools Campaign. |
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The Great Schools Campaign is a coalition of more than 40 education, business and foundation leaders, focused around three basic goals for public education in Massachusetts: achieving excellence – particularly in math and science; meeting the federal goal of requiring proficiency to pass the state’s graduation test by 2014; and turning around failing schools. |
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The Campaign is based on the conviction that Massachusetts must and can have world-class schools that produce students who score at advanced levels. During the last decade Massachusetts has implemented nationally recognized standards-based education reform and its students consistently perform at or near the top when compared to other states. But because we must compete in an increasingly competitive global economy, we need to redouble our efforts and achieve even higher levels of performance. |
| Currently, 29 percent of 10th grade students score in the advanced category on the math portion of the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS), the high-stakes test all Commonwealth students must pass in order to graduate from high school. We believe that if we can increase that percentage to 45 percent, we can be confident that our children are graduating with the math skills they need to excel in the new economy. We will seek to achieve similar progress on the science portion of the MCAS, which is scheduled to become a graduation requirement beginning in 2010. If our region is to create the level of intellectual capital that will enable us to remain competitive internationally, this must become a statewide goal. |
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We are convinced that these goals can be met, though not without significant effort. Teachers’ capacity in math and science, especially in the upper elementary and middle school grades, must be improved because we know that increasing teachers’ content knowledge is the most important step toward raising achievement and increasing the number of students who choose careers in math and science. Since student test scores in math and science are key indicators of students’ potential for excellence, our test scores must improve from their current levels. This goal will require creating an educational pipeline devoted to producing excellent teachers and retraining some current teachers. |
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At the other end of the spectrum, according to an authoritative report by Achieve, Inc., a bipartisan, non-profit organization created by the nation’s governors to help states raise academic standards, the current MCAS passing score of 220, the bottom of the “needs improvement” category, equates to only an eighth-grade skill level. A score of 240, is defined by Massachusetts standards as “proficient” – ready for success in college or a skilled job. We believe that to signify that students’ diplomas are truly meaningful, we should increase the MCAS passing scores to 230 by 2010 and to 240 by 2014. This will bring Massachusetts up to the goal in the federal No Child Left Behind Act, but, even more importantly, it will ensure that students graduate with the skills they need to succeed. |
| Right now, whether students graduate with advanced skills depends, in large part, on where they attend school. The Great Schools Campaign recently released a list of the state's lowest performing schools, based on data from the U.S. and Massachusetts Departments of Education. About 70,000 students attend these schools, many of which have been on “watch lists” that identify schools that are failing to reach annual proficiency goals for years. In half of these schools, more than 50 percent of the students have failed the MCAS math exam and more than 35 percent failed language arts. Fewer than 21 percent of the students in these schools are proficient in math and less than 45 percent are proficient in English language arts. |
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What this means is that, more than 10 years into education reform, at least 100 of Massachusetts’ almost 1900 public schools are still failing to provide students with the opportunity to learn guaranteed by the state constitution. Massachusetts prides itself on being an educational leader, but other cities and states have already taken more aggressive action to help students in underperforming schools. Chicago has its Renaissance Schools, Miami-Dade has its School Improvement Zone, and New York had its Chancellor’s District. Massachusetts should learn from these innovative initiatives. |
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The Great Schools Campaign has proposed that the Commonwealth establish a Turnaround Collaborative to partner with local districts and employ proven turnaround strategies in these failing schools. This commitment to excellence would require a significant investment. About $25 million--$250,000 per school would pay for outside turnaround principals and partners, professional development for staff and other supports for rapid (three year) turnarounds for these schools in crisis. While the price may seem steep, it is modest compared to the cost of letting 70,000 students continue to fail. It is inexpensive compared to the burden uneducated individuals will place on society and the human cost of unfulfilled lives. |
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What we are suggesting is that Massachusetts create a heightened sense of urgency, and invest in a variety of creative and aggressive strategies to turn these schools around. Elected officials should be willing to exercise the extraordinary powers already provided to chronically underperforming schools by the 1993 Education Reform Act, including declaring a state of emergency in these schools if necessary. And, not to be understated, these schools need to be provided with the necessary financial and human resources they need to mount an aggressive turnaround effort. Massachusetts students should receive a high quality education, no matter where they attend school. |
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The intellectual and economic future of our region requires that we confront these challenges now. In order to thrive, Massachusetts needs a system of public education that is equal to the potential of its talented students and educators; a system that is on par with any in the world. We understand, however, that change is often met with opposition. We will, therefore, be calling upon educational and public leaders to exercise the courage and political will that these changes require. By remaining true to Massachusetts’ tradition of educational excellence and investing in bold strategies, our leaders can ensure the economic future and well being of the Commonwealth. |
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