Competition and Collaboration – Country Comparisons (sorry internet issues over the weekend)

In the true American way, we find ourselves in competition with other countries. Who is doing it better? How can we be the best? Should we really be asking these questions? Is competition really the best way to drive success in education reform? Or should we look at it in a more collaborative way. The common threads I saw in the countries that are “beating us” were centralized systems, emphasis on teacher training and a culture of learning. These are the pieces to the puzzle I feel America is missing.

There are states and there are schools that are doing these things. They value quality education and realize that no matter the rave reviews a core curriculum gets, it’s garbage without a quality teacher implementing it. They invest in professional development; they instill the value of education in their students, resulting in 100% graduation and college bound classes of students. They are however, the exception, not the norm in the United States. In this country schools are always being compared. Someone is the best. Someone is worst and we accept it and we judge. Our country falls short as a whole because we put ourselves in a competitive system rather than a collaborative one.

The problem is we cannot have just one of these elements and expect it to be successful without the others. We cannot have a centralized system as long as there are different expectations of teachers between states. We cannot justify more money being put into higher quality centralized teacher education without a strong culture of learning. If we had a centralized system for funding, each state would be given equal funds to implement equal education, assuming of course that they receive adequate funds to properly implement. But does throwing money at it fix the problem? Not unless the money is being invested in selecting and training quality teachers. If we had a centralized system for funding AND teacher training, we could have a nationwide community of educators and researchers truly working for the same goal.

But what about states’ rights? Shouldn’t each state have the right to support its own education system? We have to ask ourselves, what’s more important, individual (state) excellence or nationwide achievement? If our biggest concern is how our country compares to other countries (keeping in mind it’s our “best” states who are representing us) then shouldn’t the solution be nationwide?

The Common Core State Standards and the upcoming Next Generation Science Standards are steps, it seams, the country is taking towards continuity across America. Is this our attempt at a centralized system? If so, what will support the teacher training to implement these standards? Because again, without the emphasis on teacher training all the work put into creating these rich and rigorous standards will all be in vain. We will again put in place an underfunded and grossly misunderstood reform that will inevitably fail.

So let’s say for a minute that we decide collectively that we want to “be like Finland” we want a centralized system and all the states agree to a system that is federally dominated. Does the United States have a culture that values and emphasizes education as our most prized possession and privilege? The answer is simple, no we don’t. So would a centralized system work in a culture that does not support it?

I guess my point is, we can look to Finland and Singapore for ideas and inspiration but we ultimately have to take what we learn from these countries, mix it with what we know about our very diverse (and I don’t just mean race) country and find our own way to excellence. We have to balance our round stones. We have to work together. In her book Power of Their Ideas: Lessons For America From a Small School in Harlem, Deborah Meier writes, “For the kind of change necessary to transform American education, teachers must do three things more or less at once: Change how they view learning itself, develop new habits to go with their new cognitive understanding, and simultaneously develop new habits of work – habits that are collegial and public, not solo and private.” The more competitive our education system is (among districts, cities and states) the more “solo” we become and the collective American education system suffers. We can reform. We can overcome. We CANNOT do it privately of separately. We don’t need to copy Finland or Singapore or Taiwan, and honestly I wouldn’t want to. We just have to find our own way publically and together.