The Two Million Minutes Blog

Fordham Institute Prints My Reply

Daniela Fairchild, a researcher at The Thomas Fordham Institute in DC, recently published a review of my documentary, The Finland Phenomenon, in their weekly blog - The Gadfly. I felt it missed the mark.

I wrote a reply to her comments and the Institute had the courtesy to publish my essay in its entirety:

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Letter to the Gadfly: The power of trust
By Bob Compton

Daniela Fairchild’s recent Gadfly review of my education documentary, The Finland Phenomenon, misinterprets my film. I appreciate the chance to clarify my views.

By way of background, I have spent twenty-five years as a venture capitalist and high-tech entrepreneur, recognizing talent and building companies around the world. I have also led several teams in turning around poor performing organizations. Those experiences inform the documentary films I have produced over the past five years.

For The Finland Phenomenon, I selected Dr. Tony Wagner, author of the Global Achievement Gap and Harvard researcher, as my collaborator and on-screen narrator. He has thirty years of experience in education as well as sensitivity to the subtleties of complex systems.

In her review, Ms. Fairchild dismisses my depiction of the Finns’ “culture of trust” in education with her derisive comments that Dr. Wagner “heralds [this] as the magic bean of Finland’s success” and by warning her readers not to “be hypnotized by Wagner’s fluffy thoughts on the culture of trust.”

More...

 

GUEST POST - Creating the Political Will to Change Educational Performance

This is a Guest Post by Lindsey Wright from Onlineschools.org:

Creating the Political Will to Change Educational Performance

In his recent post on this blog, Lessons From Finland #1 - Teacher Education and Training, Bob Compton states that the quality crisis in the US education system can be solved by changing teacher's educational requirements to stipulate higher levels of education, specialization in the fields teachers teach, and an increase in the amount of time student teachers spend in classrooms under the guidance of experienced master-level teachers, rather than just in online courses or teacher training. He notes that these educational changes require the action of each state's governor and its legislature, and further states "All it takes is courage to withstand the screams from colleges of education - the sacred cash cow of most universities." At the heart of this issue is the question: "what does it take to effect political change?"

 

Actually making political changes, of course, is for better or worse ultimately in the hands of our elected officials. Unfortunately the primary concern for many politicians becomes getting elected, even if their motivations are purely to serve their constituencies. We must also recognize that their constituencies are comprised of both individuals and businesses or other organizations, some of which often have very different priorities. Because corporate entities are frequently the largest political donors, their needs are often addressed first. Call it corruption or simply the nature of democratic government; either way, corporate contributors' interests often lead politicians to prevent legislative changes that might threaten business. Education reform is no exception.

 

So what can be done to spur the process? Unfortunately, there is no simple formula for creating the political will to change educational performance standards in this country. However, there are steps that can be taken to slowly turn the political behemoth in the right direction.

 

First and foremost, our elected leadership must be willing to put education reform near the top of the political agenda. To make this happen, concerned constituents in each district must unite in pressuring politicians to respond to this priority. For individuals, this means expressing concern for the education of the children in their local school district. Local businesses must weight the costs of higher taxation against the advantages of having an educated workforce to rely upon in the future. This view is not always taken into account in commercial enterprises, but would benefit our economy immensely in the long term.

 

Secondly, we need to make school and teacher improvement a national economic priority. A very large number of American schools are currently embroiled in economic crises, without the funding to maintain reasonable classroom sizes or retain teaching professionals with experience and outstanding credentials. Alex Johnson of MSNBC states that "Federal education figures show that employee salaries make up about 80 percent of the typical school district’s budget." He quotes Eric Churchwell, superintendent of schools in Palmyra, Mo., who points out “if you have to reduce your budget substantially the only way to do that is to reduce your teaching staff." This causes not just a reduction in the number of teacher in our schools, but a reduction in quality of instruction. Teachers possessing the master's degree that Compton would have us require will cost more to hire and retain. In part this is because they will cost significantly more to train, and it would make little economic sense for aspiring teachers to pursue additional education without the prospect of better earnings.

 

Thirdly, we need continued support for post-graduate teacher education. If we require teachers to possess a master's degree, we must provide potential teachers with economic support through grants, loans, loan forgiveness programs, and scholarships to access this higher level of training. Since teachers often earn significantly lower salary as educators than they would in comparable private sector jobs in their fields, an economic incentive is necessary to keep them in the classroom when they might instead transition to the boardroom.

 

Finally, we need to address the upcoming teacher shortage. According to Sam Dillon of the New York Times, "Over the next four years, more than a third of the nation’s 3.2 million teachers could retire." This means that we will be loosing our most experienced teachers at a time when our educational system is already in crisis, leaving potential student teachers with far fewer resources for obtaining the full year of classroom experience that Compton proposes. Much of this shortage is a result of early retirement incentives given to older teachers to alleviate budget crunches in local school districts. To replace these retiring teachers, we will need the aforementioned financial support for post graduate teacher education more than ever.

 

Changing our educational system boils down to economics and politics. While our politicians often bemoan the current state of our educational system at election time, they fail to put the necessary funds into educational development when making fiscal decisions. They rely on business donations to make it in the political arena and can't afford to alienate the people who put them in power. Therefore, business interests are considered before those of individual constituents, and businesses simply don't want to pay to educate the populace. The only thing that will effectively change this viewpoint is a real effect on the bottom lines of corporate interests. When corporations are unable to find qualified, educated individuals to fill positions, then they will begin to see the need to change. In an employer's market, such prevails at the moment, this will take time. It may represent a profound misplacement of priorities on the part of politicians and the companies that pressure them, but nevertheless it's realistically the nature of the situation.

 

In the meantime it is up to schools, organizations, and individuals to continue expressing their concerns to their governing officials. While business pays for elections, only people can vote (and recall) our elected public servants if they fail to perform. In order to initiate educations reforms for teachers, we must make our politicians perform in the best interests of our children and our future.

 

Lessons From Finland #1 - Teacher Education and Training

One of the many things I learned producing my film The Finland Phenomenon, was the importance of setting a very high standard for the education and training of teachers.

Finland's high school teachers are required to have both a Bachelors and Masters degree in the subject they teach (e.g. - math, physics, history, etc) combined with one-year of pedagogical training with very heavy emphasis in real classroom teaching experience under the guidance of an outstanding seasoned teacher.

By contrast, most U.S. States require only a Bachelors degree from a college of education with an emphasis in the subject to be taught - and frequently that subject matter is taught by professors in the Education School, not in the actual subject department. Think of it as content and rigor "light" for teachers.

So, what should America do to apply this obvious lesson from Finland? My thoughts:

1- each U.S. State needs to cut off the supply of teachers not sufficiently prepared to teach this generation at its source. The source is colleges of education. A State legislature and Governor can change the requirements to be a teacher in their State. All it takes is courage to withstand the screams from colleges of education - the sacred cash cow of most universities.

2- To teach at the high school level, a State should require the prospective teacher to have at least an undergraduate degree in the subject they plan to teach and from the department that teaches that subject (e.g. - teaching math? Require a B.S. from the Math department).

3- Prospective teachers need more classroom training before they land in front of a group of their own students. The Finns (and Indians, Chinese, Koreans, Singaporeans, etc,) get this.  A one-year pedagogical training, that includes at least 6 months of assisting a master teacher in the classroom, is critical to the new teacher's success. Observing great teaching, absorbing proven lesson plans, practice teaching with critique by the master teacher, learning classroom management, etc. This one year would be the prospective teacher's 5th year of study before certification - and is just crucial to their success.

The failure of all 50 U.S. States (plus DC) to prepare teachers for the demands of the classroom results in a staggering level of "churn" of new teachers.

From the data I have been able to gather, it appears that each year somewhere between 150,000 and 200,000 first time  teachers are hired (I get conflicting numbers). So, as many as 20,000-30,000 of those teachers are simply replacing the beginning teachers who quit after their first year.

The data would suggest that about half of the first time teachers hired each year are replacing other beginning teachers hired within the past 5 years who have simply quit. The remaining are replacing teachers who retire, are let go or are mid-career teachers who leave the profession. Check my math (I did go to public school) and verify the data, but that is my reading.

In business, if I saw anything close to that level of "churn" at the entry level of say, a sales organization, I'd be alarmed. You want your new hires to be successful early on. It is a hugely expensive undertaking to recruit and train a new employee - "churn" drives up costs enormously. Moreover, customer relationships - or student-teacher relationships - deteriorate terribly with this pattern.

SUMMARY: Raise the education requirements and require classroom-based training for new teachers and education costs will decline while results goes up. Moreover, one does not need to micro-manage highly trained, well prepared teachers.

All it takes is political will.

The Nation's Easiest College Major - Education

The Nation's Easiest College Major

By Comcast Finance
Tue, 21 Jun 2011 17:40:01 GMT

A college degree is just about essential to make a lot of money in a career, but what if you don’t want to work all that hard to get a diploma?

Slackers wanting to earn the country’s easiest college major should major in education.

5 Highest Grade Point Averages

1. Education               3.36 GPA
2. Language               3.34 GPA
3. English                   3.33 GPA
4. Music                      3.30 GPA
5. Religion                  3.22 GPA

It’s easy to get “A’s” if you’re an education major. Maybe that’s why one out of 10 college graduates major in education. Research over the years has indicated that education majors who enter college with the lowest average SAT scores, leave with the highest grades. Some of academic evidence documenting easy A’s for future teachers goes back more than 50 years!

The latest damning report on the ease of majoring in education comes from research at the University of Missouri, my alma mater. The study, conducted by economist Corey Koedel shows that education majors receive “substantially higher” grades than students in every other department.

Puff GPA’s
Koedel examined the grades earned by undergraduates during the 2007-2008 school year at three large state universities that include sizable education programs — University of Missouri, Miami (OH) University, and Indiana University. The researcher compared the grades earned by education majors with the grades earned by students in 12 other majors including biology, economics, English, history, philosophy, mathematics, chemistry, psychology and sociology.

5 Lowest Grade Point Averages

1. Chemistry              2.78 GPA
2. Math                      2.90 GPA
3. Economics              2.95 GPA
4. Psychology             2.98 GPA
5. Biology                  3.02 GPA

Education majors enjoyed grade point averages that were .5 to .8 grade points higher than students in the other college majors. At the University of Missouri, for instance, the average education major has a 3.80 GPA versus 2.99 GPA (science, math, econ majors), 3.12 GPA (social science majors) and 3.16 GPA (humanities majors).

Consequences of Easy Grades for Education Majors
Why should we care if education majors, who must survive classes like “kiddie lit,” coast through school? For starters, easy grading can prompt students to slack off. If you can earn an “A” with little effort why exert yourself? What’s more, if most students are getting A’s then how can employers distinguish the future teaching stars from the academic slugs?

Koedel also suggests that the low academic standards required of education majors can extend to low expectation of teachers after they leave college.

Low grading standards in education departments may contribute to the culture of low evaluation standards in education more generally. Although the existence of such a link is merely speculative at this point, there is a striking similarity between the favorable grades awarded to prospective teachers during university training and the favorable evaluations that teachers receive in K-12 schools.

It sounds like the only ones who are flunking these days are the education professors, who handing out all these easy A’s. These profs should spend time with teachers in departments like chemistry and economics to see how real grading works.

Students in Finland

The video clip below is an exerpt from The Finland Phenomenon: Inside The World's Most Surprising School System.

In this video, Dr. Tony Wagner interviews a group of 8th and 9th grade Finnish students.

 

Chess In The Urban Core - Washington, DC

Recently, Anthony Priest, an engineering teacher at McKinley Technology Magnet High School in Washington, DC, held a small chess tournament for the students.

Inner city students do not typically play a lot of chess, so it was particularly interesting to me to see how they took to the game.

I shouldn't have been surprised. These kids, like kids in the wealthier suburbs, are every bit as smart and curious. They often simply lack the exposure to a broader range of intellectually stimulating activities.

Here is a short video about the first McKinley High Chess Tournament.

 

The International Exams: PISA & TIMSS

American media flashes images and plays sound bites bemoaning the U.S. ranking on a variety of international exams.

Not surprisingly, what the exams measure is rarely explained, much less understood.

In the video below, Dr. Tony Wagner, Harvard education researcher and author of The Global Achievement Gap, explains the differences in two of the primary tests - PISA and TIMSS.

This video clip is part of the docuemntary - The Finland Phenomenon: Inside The World's Most Surprising School System

 

Obama: "If We Can't Help All Kids, We'll Help No Kids"

EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT - March 29, 2011
H.R. 471 – Scholarships for Opportunity and Results Act

"While the Administration appreciates that H.R. 471 would provide Federal support for improving education in the District of Columbia, the Administration opposes the creation of private school voucher programs that are authorized by this bill. 

The Federal Government should focus its attention and available resources on improving the quality of public schools for all students. 

The Administration opposes targeting resources to help a small number of individuals attend private schools rather than creating access to great public schools for every child."

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"My daughters attend the Sidwell Friends private school without the aid of vouchers," said President Obama.

Sasha Obama (age 11) commented, "I'm SO glad my daddy is President!"

With that, the entire Obama family burst into uncontrollable laughter.

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Higher Education is America's Secret Weapon...well, not exactly

While our K-12 school system has sunk well below the global standard, most US pundits have pointed to our 3,000 colleges as the source of America's excellence and as the reason the US will always lead the world in innovation and creativity.

Hold on!!

Now comes a new publication that calls that belief into question: Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses. 

What the authors found:

1- 45% of college students "did not demonstrate any significant improvement in learning" during the first two years of college.

2- 36% of students "did not demonstrate any significant improvement in learning" over four years of college.

"How much are students actually learning in contemporary higher education? The answer for many undergraduates, we have concluded, is not much," write the authors, Richard Arum, professor of sociology and education at New York University, and Josipa Roksa, assistant professor of sociology at the University of Virginia.

Uh oh...

From The Department of Mixed Messages

The world's top performing school systems share one cultural trait - they value education, academic excellence and intellectual achievement by their children - above sports, clubs or a job. From India to China to Korea to Finland.

Society gets what it celebrates. In American high schools we celebate sports and social standing. We rarely celebrate our academic or intellectual stars.

So it is not without irony that the STEM and ROBOTICS EXPO in Washington, DC is being used to hawk tickets to the Washington Wizards basketball game.

Here's the message: we'll put up with some kids and their science projects, then chug a few beers and really enjoy oursleves - watching a basketball game!!

And the adults will delude themselves into believing they're supporting STEM education. 

Parting company with a poorly performing teacher - how hard can that be?