Girls, when I was growing up, my parents used to say to me, “Tom, finish your dinner – people in China and India are starving.” My advice to you is: Girls, finish your homework – people in China and India are starving for your jobs.
– from The World Is Flat by Thomas
Friedman

The crew of Apollo 17 took this photograph of Earth in
December 1972 while the spacecraft was traveling between the Earth and the sun. The orange-red deserts of Africa and Saudi Arabia stand in stark contrast to the deep blue of the oceans and the white of both clouds and snow-covered Antarctica.

Bangalore India
Infosys – Call center company in Bangalore
 In 2004 Infosys had 9000 job openings and received one million applications from qualified Indians.

Bangalore India
 In America call center jobs are low wage and low prestige jobs
 In India call center jobs are high wage and high prestige jobs

Bangalore India
 Off shoring these jobs saves companies approximately 75% in wages
 More importantly (and not usually mentioned in the US), workers in India and
China are approximately 100% more productive!

Main Message
 With the flattening of Earth due to technology and the opening up of economies in China, India, Russia, and
Eastern Europe workers in the US must move their skills vertically to survive!
 Changing jobs but staying at the the same education level will not be enough.
 It is not enough that only 10 to 20 percent of US children get a strong math education

Education and Motivation Gap
 Saying at the Microsoft research center in
Beijing, China:
“Remember, When you are one in a million, there are 1300 others just like you.”

Education and Motivation Gap
 Microsoft has three research centers in the world



Cambridge, England
Redmond, WA
Beijing, China
 Within two years after opening in 1998, the
Microsoft research center in Beijing, China was the most productive.

Education and Motivation Gap
 Federal funding in the US for research in physical and mathematical sciences and engineering as a share of GDP declined by 37% from 1970 to 2004.

Education and Motivation Gap
 Percentage of scientific papers written by
Americans has fallen 10% since 1992
 Percentage of papers published in the top physics journal in the world, Physical
Review , by Americans has fallen from 61% to 29% since 1983.
 From 1980 to 2003 US share of patents has fallen from 60% to 52%.

Education and Motivation Gap
 Think about current discussions on immigration and ease of students coming to America after 2001.

National Foundation for American Policy recently conducted research that shows 60% of US top science students and 65% of US top math students are children of recent immigrants.

Education and Motivation Gap
 Fewer technologically and scientifically trained immigrants coming to US than in the past.
 Students that come to US for technological or scientific degrees are returning to their own countries. They are not staying here anymore.
 We have a brain drain!

Education and Motivation Gap
 Trends in International Mathematics and
Science Study (TIMSS)

Given every 4 years

2004 results are out

Education and Motivation Gap
 Trends in International Mathematics and
Science Study (TIMSS)

44% of eighth grade students in Singapore scored at the most advanced level in math.

38% for Taiwan.

Only 7% for American eighth graders.

Education and Motivation Gap
 John Hopkins University – routinely ranked as the number 1 research institution in
America

Over 60% of graduate students in sciences are foreign students (and they won’t stay here after they graduate)

In 2000 all the graduate students in mathematics were from China

Education and Motivation Gap
 Tracy Koon – Intel’s director of corporate affairs:
“We looked at the fact that in disciplines relative to our industry, the number of US students graduating at the master’s and PhD levels were declining in absolute numbers and relative to other countries.”

Education and Motivation Gap
 Tracy Koon – Intel’s director of corporate affairs:
“In our K to twelve we were doing okay at the fourth-grade level, we were doing middle-ofthe-road in the eight grade, and by the twelfth grade we were hovering near the bottom in international tests related to math. So the longer kids were in school the dumber they were getting.”

Education and Motivation Gap
 Tracy Koon – Intel’s director of corporate affairs:
“We have just started a whole engineering function in Russia, where engineers have wonderful training – and talk about underemployed! We are beefing that up.
Why wouldn’t you?”

Crisis is slow to unfold
 Students taking science and math classes in middle school today will complete advanced degrees in 2018 to 2020.

Crisis is slow to unfold
 Students taking science and math classes in middle school today will complete advanced degrees in 2018 to 2020.

Crisis is slow to unfold
 The National Science Board reports that in
2003 2.8 million science and engineering bachelor’s degrees were granted worldwide.


1.2 million – Asia
830,000 – Europe

400,000 - US

Crisis is slow to unfold
 In engineering specifically, universities in
Asia now produce eight times as many bachelor’s degrees as in America.
 Best engineering school in the world is in
India.

Crisis is slow to unfold
 In China, science and engineering degrees represent 60% of all bachelor’s degrees granted.
 31% for America

Crisis is slow to unfold
 If just engineering is considered, 46% of all bachelor’s degrees in China are in engineering fields.
 In America it is 5%.

Crisis is slow to unfold
 Students taking science and math classes in middle school today will complete advanced degrees in 2018 to 2020.