Quiz Answer (orig. 6/1/2011)

The paragraph I sent as a "quick quiz" comes from a paper written by  Marc Tucker of the National Center for Education and the Economy titled "Standing on the Shoulders of Giants."  "The paper contrasts the approaches taken by five high performing (but quite different) entities -- Toronto, Japan, Finland, Shanghai and Singapore -- with what we have been doing here." John Merrow, education correspondent for the PBS Newshour, wrote a column summarizing Tucker's paper:

"The essential message: those places aren't doing any of the stuff we have focused on -- charter schools, alternate certification, small classes and pay for performance, to name a few of our 'magic bullets.' Instead, they have developed comprehensive systems: their teachers are drawn from the top of the class, are trained carefully and, if hired, are paid like other professionals. They spend more on the children who are the toughest to educate, they diagnose and intervene at the first sign of trouble, they expect their best teachers to work in the toughest schools, and they expect all students to achieve at high levels. They do not rely heavily on machine-scored multiple choice tests but are inclined to trust and respect the judgements of teachers. Their curriculum is coherent across the system, which eliminates problems created by students moving around."

"By contrast, think about our approach: Here schools of education accept a high percentage of applicants, the training is not demanding, we pay poor starting salaries and provide little assistance to beginning teachers, and the best teachers invariably migrate to the richer districts. The result is a system-wide attrition rate of 40 percent in the first five years (but that keeps the teacher-training institutions full!) Our curricula are out of sync and often incoherent, and we tend to spend more on the richest kids, not the neediest ones. Because we (perhaps appropriately) do not trust the poorly trained and under-qualified teachers we've hired, we spend money on 'teacher-proof' curricula and evaluate students using test scores and more test scores."

"In the U.S. we don't have one system, or even 50 systems. We believe in these aforementioned magic bullets, whether it's charter schools, alternative certification, small classes, pay-for-performance or Teach for America. The others have comprehensive systems that have evolved over years. They benchmark carefully and make changes as necessary to remain competitive."

"The paper was presented on Tuesday in Washington before an audience of policy wonks and others. Education Secretary Arne Duncan addressed the group, and that was completely appropriate because he did much to instigate these comparisons and contrasts when he (and the NEA) arranged for the first-ever Education Summit of high-achieving nations. That was held in New York earlier this year in conjunction with WNET's "Celebration of Teachers." (Cynics noted -- accurately -- that the ONLY way the U.S. could participate in a summit of high-achieving nations was to host it, but so what?)"

"Reporters like me weren't allowed to attend the deliberations, but I have been told by several people who were on hand that it was a wake-up call for Duncan and his staff to learn that no other country was doing what we are betting on." [Emphasis mine.]

Here's the link to Merrow's column (which contains a link to the full paper):

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-merrow/international-education-divide_b_867393.html

Now the answer to the quiz. The paragraph I sent is near the end of the paper, and reads like this:

"Canada, like many of the other top performers, has moved the preparation of its teachers into the universities.  In order to teach in Ontario schools, high school graduates must complete a degree program in the subject they wish to teach and another degree program lasting at least a year in professional education.  This includes elementary school teachers, who must specialize in one or two subjects in the elementary curriculum, such as English, history, science or mathematics.  Secondary school teachers must have academic credentials in at least two subjects, such as English and history, or music and mathematics.  Candidates who think they might want to be a subject specialist must take an honors degree.  High school students must have 3.2 to 3.3 grade point averages on a scale of four to get into the institutions offering the first of these two degrees.  There are fewer universities per capita than in the United States and the universities in which teachers are trained have a higher status than their opposite numbers in the United States.  Teachers in Canada are better paid than American teachers." 

There's more in this paper that's worth some attention. That's later.