LenMullen
Joined: 04 Nov 2008
Posts: 321
Location: Danville, NH
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 Posted: Tue Jun 16, 2009 9:24 pm Post subject: Education: The Permanent Recession |
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from USA Today (our answer to Pravda)...
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According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (a group that works with governments on policy questions),international test scores for the top 10% of American 15-year-olds are far below those of the top 10% in other rich countries such as Finland and Switzerland. That means American students who might qualify for gifted programs score on par with students who would be considered, at best, B-team material in South Korea.
This is a problem because economists know from years of analysis that people who do better on standardized tests grow up to be more productive workers. They are more likely to finish college and use their skills to start businesses or create innovations for their employers. Despite our school woes, the U.S. economy efficiently turns these top achievers into top earners. Presumably, if we could create more high achievers, this would create more economic growth.
With that assumption, McKinsey & Co., a management consulting company, recently ran the numbers, and found that if U.S. children did as well as students from nations such as Finland, our economy would be 9%-16% larger. This means our schools are costing us $1.3 trillion to $2.3 trillion every year. Just for comparison's sake, as of late May, economists thought the recession would shave 3.7% from our economy.
Even more interesting? This international gap is larger than America's black-white achievement gap. According to McKinsey, closing the racial gap would boost the economy by up to $525 billion. While that's a lot, as the report says, "lagging achievement in the United States is not merely an issue for poor children attending schools in poor neighborhoods; instead, it affects most children in most schools." The failure of schools to push even rich white kids to achieve their potential is inflicting the ongoing equivalent of the worst downturn since the Great Depression.
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This is not my opinion. Just something for you to chew on.
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"I've been teaching here for 20 years so please don't assume that kids can add, subtract, multiply and divide integers without problems. Especially subtraction, as I found that many have trouble with." TRMS Math Teacher |
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