Opening Day
September 2, 2008

Inside photos showed Alexei doing complicated experiments in physics and chemistry and reading aloud from Sister Carrie .
Zhao, 2008
Stephen, by contrast, retreated from a geometry problem on the blackboard and the caption advised, "Stephen amused class with wisecracks about his ineptitude."
Seated at a typewriter in typing class,
Stephen tells us "I type about one word a minute."

Our Nation is at risk. Our once unchallenged preeminence in commerce, industry, science, and technological innovation is being overtaken by competitors throughout the world.
The educational foundations of our society are presently being eroded by a rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our very future as a
Nation and a people.
We are raising a new generation of Americans that is scientifically and technologically illiterate.
Zhao, 2008

1995 TIMSS Grade 8 Mathematics Performance
Nations with Average Scores
Significantly Higher than the US
Nation
Singapore
Korea
Japan
Hong Kong
Belgium (Fl)
Czech Republic
Slovak Republic
Switzerland
(Netherlands)
(Slovenia)
(Bulgaria)
(Austria)
France
Hungary
Russian Fed.
(Australia)
Ireland
Canada
(Belgium (Fr))
Sweden
Average
643
607
605
588
565
564
547
545
541
541
540
539
538
537
535
530
527
527
526
519
Nations with Average Scores Not
Significantly Different than the US
Nation
Thailand
Israel
(Germany)
New Zealand
England
Norway
(Denmark)
United States
(Scotland)
Latvia (LSS)
Spain
Iceland
(Greece)
(Romania)
500
498
493
487
487
484
482
Average
522
522
509
508
506
503
502
Nations with Average Scores Significantly
Lower than the US
Nation
Lithuania
Cyprus
Portugal
Iran, Islamic Republic
(Kuwait)
(Columbia)
South Africa
Average
477
474
454
428
392
385
354
Zhao, 2008

Two Million Minutes , vividly reveals that American students are no longer “at risk” of falling behind -- they are now clearly behind even Third World students in India and China, in addition to being in 24th place among developed countries.
By comparing how these students prioritize their time (approximately four years or “two million minutes” of high school), the film demonstrates that the typical student in the U.S. spends much less time on his/her education and gives less thought to future career opportunities than his/her global peers in India and China.
--2 million minutes
Source: http://www.2mminutes.com/pressblog6.html
Zhao, 2008

Despite the billions of dollars being spent on ‘education reform’ since 1983, the U.S. has implemented none of the meaningful recommendations of the 1983 report and as a result has seen no real improvements to our math or science education system.
----Robert Compton,2008, creator and executive producer of the documentary Two Million
Minutes .
Source: http://www.2mminutes.com/pressblog6.html
Two decades later, A Nation at Risk remains significant in terms of setting the debate and ushering in an era of reform in education, but its goals have not yet been realized. The changes wrought by twenty years of task forces, committees, and study groups have not produced the hoped-for improvement in student achievement. Few of the commission's recommendations were properly implemented, and many of those that were proved too timid to bring about effective educational reform.
--Diane Ravitch 2003
Source: http://www.hoover.org/pubaffairs/dailyreport/archive/2848976.html
Zhao, 2008

U.S. treading water in reading
Bloomberg News Service
Russia, Hong Kong and Singapore shot to the top of 45 countries and provinces participating in a fourth-grade reading test, while England fell below the United States, according to results released yesterday. (Honolulu
Advertiser, November 29, 2007)
U.S. Students Fall Short in Math and Science
Teenagers in a majority of industrialized nations taking part in a leading international exam showed greater scientific understanding than students in the United States—and they far surpassed their American peers in mathematics
.
(Education Week, December 4, 2007)
Zhao, 2008

2007-2008 Global Competitiveness Index
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
United States
Japan
Korea
China
India
Russia
0
United
States
Japan Korea China India Russia http://www.weforum.org/pdf/Global_Competitiveness_Reports/Reports/gcr_2007/gcr2007_rankings.pdf
Zhao, 2008

Source: http:// www.worldmapper.org
/
World Population Distribution
Toy Exports
World Tertiary Education Enrollment
Zhao, 2008

[China 2002]
In December 2002, the Chinese Ministry of Education issued a policy designed to reform assessment and evaluation in elementary and secondary schools. This document, entitled
Ministry of Education’s Notice Regarding Furthering the Reform of Evaluation and
Assessment Systems in Elementary and Secondary Schools , calls for alternative assessments that go beyond simply testing academic knowledge. It specifically forbids ranking school districts, schools, or individual students based on test results or making test results public.
[China 2005]
High school curriculum reform
Among the problems targeted by the reforms:
•Overemphasis on knowledge transmission
•Too many required and uniform courses, which limited students’ individual development
•Too much overlapping content, resulting in excessive coursework burden on students
•Overemphasis on the value of individual discipline, resulting in too little interdisciplinary and social integration
Remedies:
•Credit system
•More electives, fewer required courses
•Local subjects/school based curriculum
•Integrated studies
•New subjects (art, environment, technology, etc)
Zhao, 2008

Japan
• Since 2001, Japan has been working to implement its Education Plan for the
21st Century, which has three major objectives:
– The first is “enhancing emotional education,” that is, cultivating students as emotionally well-rounded human beings.
– The second objective is “realizing a school system that helps children develop their individuality and gives them diverse choices” by moving towards a diverse, flexible educational system that encourages individuality and cultivates creativity.
– The third is “promoting a system in which the school’s autonomy is respected” through decentralizing educational administration, enhancing local autonomy, and enabling independent self-management at the school level. (Iwao, 2000)
Zhao, 2008

[Korea 2000]
Revised 7th National Curriculum
The ultimate goal is to cultivate creative, autonomous, and self-driven human resources who will lead the era's developments in information, knowledge and globalization.
•Promote fundamental and basic education that fosters sound human beings and nurtures creativity
•Help students build self-leading capacity so that they well meet the challenges of today's globalization and information development
• Implement learner-oriented education that suits the students' capability, aptitude and career development needs
• Ensure expanded autonomy for the local community and schools in curriculum planning and operation.
Zhao, 2008

Singapore
Since 1997, Singapore another frequent high flyer in international comparative studies, has engaged in a major curriculum reform initiative. Entitled Thinking Schools , Learning Nation , this initiative aims to develop all students into active learners with critical thinking skills and to develop a creative and critical thinking culture within schools. Its key strategies include:
• The explicit teaching of critical and creative thinking skills;
• The reduction of subject content;
• The revision of assessment modes; and;
• A greater emphasis on processes instead of on outcomes when appraising schools.
• In 2005, the Ministry of Education in Singapore released another major policy document
Nurturing Every Child: Flexibility and Diversity in Singapore Schools , which called for a more varied curriculum, a focus on learning rather than teaching, and more autonomy for schools and teachers (Ministry of Education, 2005).
Zhao, 2008

Imagination is more important than knowledge.
It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education.
Albert Einstein

HD TV
Zhao, 2008

Swanni's Annual 'Best & Worst' HDTV List
1. Teri Hatcher
2. Demi Moore
3. Donald Trump
4. Heather Locklear
5. David Letterman
6. George W. Bush
7. Ray Liotta
8. Sandra Bullock
9. Bill Clinton
10. Clint Eastwood
1. Jessica Alba
2. Eva Longoria
3. Anna Kournikova
4. Ben Affleck
5. Ashton Kutcher
6. Marcia Cross
7. Halle Berry
8. Jessica Simpson
9. Nicole Kidman
10. Angelina Jolie http://www.tvpredictions.com/fall2005hd092605.html
Zhao, 2008

"Say bud, can you tell me where the illiterate club is?"
Zhao, 2008

Industrial Revolution
Zhao, 2008

Science!
What’s taught in schools
Latin
Chemistry
Greek
--Herbert Spencer, 1859
Zhao, 2008

(W)hy would the world’s employers pay us more than they have to pay the Indians to do their work? They would be willing to do that only if we could offer something that the Chinese and Indians, and others, cannot.
--New Commission on the Skills of the American
Workforce (2007). Tough Choices or Tough Times

As electrically contracted, the globe is no more than a village.
Marshall McLuhan, 1964
“Honey,” I confided, “I think the world is flat.”
Thomas Friedman, 2005

Therefore we need to move into niche areas where they will not be able to completely replace us for quite some time.
---Lee Kuan Yew, 2007

Daniel H. Pink (2005).A Whole New Mind: Moving from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age

Information Age:
L-Directed Thinking
– Sequential
– Literal
– Functional
– Textual
– Analytic
Asia
Automation
Abundance
Conceptual Age:
R-Directed Thinking
– Simultaneous
– Metaphorical
– Aesthetic
– Contextual
– Synthetic
Zhao, 2008

• Design
• Story
• Symphony
• Empathy
• Play
• Meaning

• Disciplinary Mind
– Mastery
• Schools of Thought
• Professional Craft
• Synthesizing Mind
– Integrate Ideas
– Communicate
• Creating Mind
– Uncover new ideas
– Clarify new ideas
• Respectful Mind
– Awareness and appreciation of differences
• Ethical Mind
– Fulfillment of responsibilities
Gardner, 2006

The completely untraveled person will view all foreigners as the savage regards a member of another herd. But the man who has traveled, or who has studied international politics, will have discovered that, if his herd is to prosper, it must, to some degree, become amalgamated with other herds.
--Bertrand Russell, 1950

American companies lose an estimated $2 billion a year due to inadequate cross-cultural guidance for their employees in multicultural situations. A
2002 survey of large U.S. corporations found that nearly 30 percent of the companies believed they had failed to exploit fully their international business opportunities due to insufficient personnel with international skills. Microsoft’s Windows95 was banned by India because its Time Zone map put the region of Kashmir outside the boundaries of India. (Committee for Economic Development, 2006)

• Unique talents
• Creativity, Imagination, and Passion
• Cross-cultural competencies
– Understanding the globe
– Foreign languages
– Understanding other cultures
• Global responsibilities
Zhao, 2008

Zhao, 2008

• Living in the digital world
– Consumers
– Citizens
– Community leaders
• Making a living in the digital world
– Digital workers
– Global workers
• (Re)Creating the digital world
– Innovators
– Entrepreneurs
Zhao, 2008

Assume Moral Responsibility of Public
Educators
Public education does not serve a public. It creates a public.
Neil Postman
The philosophy of the classroom today will be the philosophy of government tomorrow.
Abraham Lincoln
Zhao, 2008

Be informed of changes.
Model attitudes and behaviors.
Lead changes in curriculum, policy, and events in your schools.
Advocate changes in the state and the nation.
Zhao, 2008