The Global Search for Education
“The low-income schools that are struggling seem to get the teachers that are not the best. The states have to change that situation and put the priority on placing the top teachers in low-income schools.”— Dick Riley
The Education Debate - Richard Wilson Riley
C. M. Rubin with Harry Rubin and Michael Freeborn
The last presidential debate offered little in the way of focus on education and related policy. Today in The Global Search for Education series, I continue my conversations with education luminaries to discuss the issues that we believe will be a priority for the next President of the United States.
My imaginary Secretary of Education this week is former U.S. Secretary of Education and past Governor of South Carolina, Richard Wilson Riley. A lifelong advocate for high-quality education, many Americans (according to The Christian Science Monitor) regard Riley as “one of the great statesmen of education of the 20th century.” Serving for both of President Clinton’s terms, Riley helped to launch many historic initiatives to raise academic standards, improve instruction for the poor and disadvantaged, modernize schools, expand grant and loan programs for higher education, and improve teaching, among other significant advances.
Currently, Dick Riley speaks, provides leadership and serves in an advisory and collaborative capacity with many entities to promote education improvement in the United States and abroad.
What should the role of federal government be in K- 12 education? How much more funding should be given to education reform and in what major areas should it be spent?
The federal government should establish national priorities, such as helping disabled children (IDEA) and low-income children (Title 1). Those big national priorities that generally are funded by the federal government should continue to be part of the national policy.
The other part of national education policy should be about encouraging and challenging states to improve and to reform education through innovation. We should continue to call for challenging academic standards in core subjects, allowing public charter schools as part of choice, encouraging high teacher performance - those kinds of things are part of the President’s reform package. All of those measures should be put in place by the states. The states should be submitting plans for getting those things done. So that’s how I see the role of federal government policy.
Continuing to fund education during a time of economic recession is one of the main strengths of President Obama. In the middle of a recession that was not of his making, a recession that was handed to him when he took office as president, Obama made education a priority. He recognized that this is a knowledge-based economy, not just nationally, but globally. He recognized that we could not turn around an economy if our education system was failing. He took the initiative to prioritize education. I thought and still think that this was a brave and courageous thing to do. And, frankly, I think it has worked.
What would be your position on improving the teaching profession, including recruitment, teacher training, compensation, and assignment to low-income schools?
I have enormous respect for teachers. Not all of our teachers are high-quality teachers but certainly the greater percentages of them are. Further, they generally are committed to moving through all the areas of education reform, such as technology. So I have a very good feeling for teachers.
Countries that seem to rank highest in education right now, like Finland, have prioritized teacher recruitment. They get the very top students for the education profession. They do this by offering higher compensation and other benefits. It works. I think we need to do more in that regard, particularly in terms of finding ways to attract the brightest students to the profession of teaching.
I do not think teachers are being compensated as professionals, and they should be. When you pay teachers more, you can demand more. Also, I am a strong believer in the benefit of teachers working collaboratively with each other. I believe in high-quality teachers helping to improve those that are not. I do not believe in putting one teacher in the classroom and saying that’s it, you’re on your own. When teachers work in teams, students also will learn the importance and value of working in teams.
Right now we seem to send our best teachers to the best K-12 schools. The low-income schools that are struggling seem to get the teachers that are not the best. The states have to change that situation and put the priority on placing the top teachers in low-income schools. It would be a great help if we could move in that direction.
“I firmly oppose vouchers. Public schools are struggling for resources and I believe the idea of shifting a massive amount of money over into the private schools is a mistake.” — Dick Riley
What kinds of things could the states do to make this happen?
For instance, a school in a poor community could provide a residence for a young, high-quality teacher to live in that community. Other incentives could be provided to encourage better teachers to move into low-income school areas. And assistance could be provided for current teachers in low-income schools to gain National Board certification and other professional development to improve their teaching skills.
What would be your position on school choice, including charter schools and their expansion, private schools, vouchers, and investment in inadequately staffed and facilitated low-income schools?
I very much support public school charters. As you know, I was involved in the Clinton administration and we supported charter schools as an option for school boards to develop more public school choice and more school creativity. As with opening any new school, granting a charter does not automatically guarantee success; but generally it has proven to be a good option for students and families, as well as has spurred other creative ideas within the system.
I firmly oppose vouchers. Public schools are struggling for resources and I believe the idea of shifting a massive amount of money over into the private schools is a mistake. I support quality private schools. I support quality parochial schools. But I will continue to oppose strongly the use of public money for private or parochial school vouchers.
What would be your strategy to address the domestic and international achievement gaps, including your position on early childhood education, standardized testing, on-line modular education, and teacher/principal accountability?
Achievement gaps are a major issue, and we need to deal with them.
First of all, I believe we need to look at both domestic and international comparisons in terms of setting our standards and our strategies for improvement.
The only way you can close gaps in the long term is to invest more in early childhood education. All students improve as they move through the system. However, the gap becomes very difficult to close, or even narrow, when local communities don’t make pre-school a priority. Early childhood education involves a lot of things, including parental involvement and proper healthcare to ensure children are better developed by the time they get to kindergarten. We need to focus on this, especially in low-income areas. I very much support strengthening early childhood education.
With regard to standardized testing, that is very important. But we need multiple measures of assessment to determine a child’s (and school’s) academic status and growth. Formative tests that are given on a regular basis and provide timely feedback to teachers, students and their parents are particularly effective in determining what a child knows or doesn’t know and how that child’s instruction should be adjusted to gain continuous improvement.
Evaluating teachers and principals has always been difficult and it’s receiving a lot of discussion nowadays, as it should. I believe that student achievement, especially as far as improvement is concerned, is an important part of evaluating teachers. However, I do not believe that it should be the only method of assessment used. A thoughtful school principal will look at all the different factors that affect good teaching. He or she will develop a system within the school where teachers are collaborating and helping each other to do better, a system where students are learning from students. Observing a teacher’s work in the classroom (either sitting in or using videos) and assigning mentors to work with teachers on teaching methods are other ways that performance can improve.
Evaluating a teacher also depends a lot on who the students are. A teacher with very bright students in a well-to-do suburb is more likely to achieve more in the classroom than a teacher who has students from a very poor neighborhood where the parents (who possibly didn’t have a good education themselves) are struggling. It’s very hard to compare teachers in these situations. I am a great believer in looking at individual student improvement rather than how students are doing side by side. If the students are improving, my feeling is the teacher must be doing a pretty good job.
“I do not think teachers are being compensated as professionals, and they should be. When you pay teachers more, you can demand more.” — Dick Riley
What would be your position on curriculum reform, including the role of the arts, the treatment of ethics, and the adoption of blended online learning?
Technology is now clearly a part of our education system and will continue to change the way we provide education today and in the future. I personally like the blended learning ideas - that is, a blend of online and face-to-face interaction with students. Online learning allows us to reach out in many ways. In addition, it can be done quickly, from any location and at all times of the day. Blended learning will be an important part of education.
I strongly support music and the other arts in education. Enhancing the creative side of learning is extremely important, and studies have shown that music instruction has a beneficial effect on learning math and other core subjects. Learning to be creative, informed and well-rounded is important for our economy and it is important for our world.
Ethics is a very important part of growing up and learning. Parents have a strong role to play in that but so do schools and teachers. Positive role models are one of the best ways to illustrate strong ethics.
What would be your position on how to make college affordable for more qualified low-income students?
The cost of a college education is becoming a big national problem.
I am supportive of early college high schools. This idea of students finishing high school with one and in some cases two years of college behind them will save students money and time. The total cost of a four-year degree also can be reduced by spending the first two years at a community or technical college. This is good.
In President Obama’s plan, he encourages cost containment by colleges and universities. I think they all should be aware of this, paying attention to it and doing something about it. Pell grants, which the President has increased by more than 50%, are a tremendous benefit to low-income students. Also, significant cost savings to students, their families and all taxpayers have resulted from the federal Direct Lending program. With the community colleges and early college high schools programs, plus cost containment, Pell grants and Direct Lending, among others, we all should be able to work together to make college more affordable.
Dick Riley and C. M. Rubin
Photos courtesy of Riley Institute at Furman University and Nelson, Mullins, Riley & Scarborough L.L.P.
In The Global Search for Education, join me and globally renowned thought leaders including Sir Michael Barber (UK), Dr. Michael Block (US), Dr. Leon Botstein (US), Professor Clay Christensen (US), Dr. Linda Darling-Hammond (US), Dr. Madhav Chavan (India), Professor Michael Fullan (Canada), Professor Howard Gardner (US), Professor Andy Hargreaves (US), Professor Yvonne Hellman (The Netherlands), Professor Kristin Helstad (Norway), Jean Hendrickson (US), Professor Rose Hipkins (New Zealand), Professor Cornelia Hoogland (Canada), Mme. Chantal Kaufmann (Belgium), Dr. Eija Kauppinen (Finland), State Secretary Tapio Kosunen (Finland), Professor Dominique Lafontaine (Belgium), Professor Hugh Lauder (UK), Professor Ben Levin (Canada), Lord Ken Macdonald (UK), Professor Barry McGaw (Australia), Shiv Nadar (India), Professor R. Natarajan (India), Dr. Pak Tee Ng (Singapore), Dr. Denise Pope (US), Sridhar Rajagopalan (India), Dr. Diane Ravitch (US), Sir Ken Robinson (UK), Professor Pasi Sahlberg (Finland), Andreas Schleicher (PISA, OECD), Dr. Anthony Seldon (UK), Dr. David Shaffer (US), Dr. Kirsten Sivesind (Norway), Chancellor Stephen Spahn (US), Yves Theze (Lycee Francais US), Professor Charles Ungerleider (Canada), Professor Tony Wagner (US), Sir David Watson (UK), Professor Dylan Wiliam (UK), Dr. Mark Wormald (UK), Professor Theo Wubbels (The Netherlands), Professor Michael Young (UK), and Professor Minxuan Zhang (China) as they explore the big picture education questions that all nations face today.
The Global Search for Education Community Page
C. M. Rubin is the author of two widely read online series for which she received a 2011 Upton Sinclair award, “The Global Search for Education” and “How Will We Read?” She is also the author of three bestselling books, including The Real Alice in Wonderland.
Follow C. M. Rubin on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@cmrubinworld
The Global Search for Education
“Dwight Seoul is about creating real leaders and not just test takers.” — Kevin Skeoch
From South Korea
By C. M. Rubin with Harry Rubin and Michael Freeborn
The first IB “through school” (primary years, middle years and diploma program) will open its doors to students in one of the world’s leading education systems in August 2012 — Seoul, South Korea. The school is located in Seoul’s new Digital Media City, considered Korea’s Silicon Valley.
Founded in 1968, the IB currently works with 3,371 schools in 141 countries. Dr. Siva Kumari, Chief Operating Officer of the IBO Schools Division explains:
“The IB has integrally believed in creating an intellectually challenging but age-appropriate program of study for students. Internationalism and inclusion are part of our DNA, both as an organization and within our curriculum. To understand others, the students must understand their own culture and respect their own language, as well as develop a deep understanding that knowledge and knowing are dependent on perspectives. Alongside intellectually rigorous academics, we feel the need to develop students who are open-minded, caring and principled, and that can effectively function anywhere in the world. We value innovation both in our curriculum and among our students. Our curriculum is co-created with IB teachers from all around the world. We gather their best ideas and germinate those via pilots in other schools; best practices are then circulated to our schools worldwide. We also create a framework where students’ innovative spirits are fostered, given room to grow and are mentored within guidelines. At all levels, we allow students to exhibit their own individualized investigation of a topic that they are deeply curious about.”
Principal Dianne Drew, Ambassador Young-mok Kim, Chancellor Stephen Spahn
The Dwight Family of Schools, headed by Chancellor Stephen Spahn, was selected by the Seoul Metropolitan Government after viewing 100 schools for the project because of its outstanding IB curriculum, as well as Dwight’s leadership in international education.
To find out more about how a leading global education system and a celebrated 140 year old family of IB schools plan to marry their models, I chatted with Head of School in Seoul, Kevin Skeoch:
Apart from being the first IB “through school,” why is the Dwight school in Seoul different from other international schools available?
There are a number of reasons. Dwight Seoul stresses innovation and leadership at its center. It is a continuum of education in the best practices of teaching and learning that follows a tested Dwight Family of Schools model of IB education already working in four IB World Schools on three continents. Dwight Seoul is a non-denominational school that believes there is a “spark of genius” in every child. Its teachers come from a network of experienced IB professionals who know what it means to educate internationally. Dwight Seoul will be an innovative flagship IB school specializing in technology.
“Students who receive an IB diploma are prepared to go on to universities anywhere in the world.” — Kevin Skeoch
Can you speak about your technology focus in Korea and how you envision this will evolve?
If a student wants to know something today, they automatically turn to one of several electronic devices; that’s their dictionary. That in itself represents a major paradigm shift from the way those over 30 were taught. But no school can keep up with technology today. Dwight Seoul is a BYOD (bring your own device) school for grades 6 through 12 and operates on a one to one supported technology framework. Whether a laptop, IPad, tab or something else, your piece of technology is an extension of you in school. Technology is not the answer, but the tool to support you in your search for knowledge and understanding. We will be supplying devices on a 1:3 ratio up to Grade 3, and 1:2 in Grades 4 - 5. We will also have two fully equipped iMac labs. What we want from technology is the ability to turn the classroom into a more collaborative learning experience. When you enter the Dwight school in Seoul, the first visual should be students working together in small groups.
We are taking a very progressive approach to incorporating technology in the classrooms: making all our lessons available in an online learning system, which would be made available to students to use wherever they are. In the classroom, this translates into students being able to replay a lesson in their own time if at first they don’t understand. The individualized approach to learning enables students to review the day’s learning at their own pace in their own environment.
LCD television screens are provided for teachers and students to present multimedia applications in all classrooms. Full wireless access is provided to enable everyone to access our catalogue of online resources for individual and collaborative learning. Students can access the resources at home and in school. In the library and resource center and central foyers, live feeds will present events of the day, news feeds, etc. throughout the school.
Dwight Seoul is taking an approach to online learning environments that will not only bring all Dwight students together (not limited by location) but also network students around the world. Collaborative learning happens by default and together with our virtual classroom. Talking to one another and learning across continents will enhance this online environment even further.
We’re also looking at ways to use technology to educate teachers. The interest in IB in Korea, other parts of Asia, and indeed other underdeveloped countries is huge, but it comes down to basic teacher training. How you change teachers from rote learning styles to the IB style of learning is the challenge for the future. We have built a teacher training center at the Seoul school along with the appropriate technology for teachers to do this.
“How you change teachers from rote learning styles to the IB style of learning is the challenge for the future.” — Kevin Skeoch
Stressed out South Korean students have received significant media attention in the US. Thoughts on stress created by SAT tests and other assessments, including the IB?
Dwight Seoul is about creating real leaders and not just test takers. The SAT in a school like ours is less important than creating a well-rounded individual who is able to rise above exams. We will have a clear roadmap for how students prepare for their IB exams, and the SAT is a part of that preparation for university. The worst schools I have visited are those that dump the tests on kids at the end of grade 10 and it just becomes too much for them to handle on top of all the other internal assessments as well as the diploma exams. Koreans are known for their testing performance and they probably work themselves to the bone to make sure they do well on standardized tests. However, parents applying to our school have told me they want to get their kids out of that traditional testing environment. They want a more progressive school that maps students’ testing on a continuum of learning and is more geared towards what is required for their children to compete globally. Dwight Seoul students will take the SAT test if they intend to apply to US colleges where the SAT is required, but the SAT will not be the main focus of their education. The majority of the focus will be on the IB and supporting individualized journeys to discovering each child’s spark of genius.
Have students completing the IB diploma in the US, UK, Canada, China or South Korea been prepared for universities anywhere in the world?
The IB is not only the preferred international school curriculum today, it is also highly regarded by over 4000 universities around the world who accept the diploma as an entrance requirement. Students who receive an IB diploma are prepared to go on to universities anywhere in the world. A child who is going to university in the UK, Australia, Switzerland or the US will have different requirements to meet depending on their course of study and the type of university they are applying to. A recent poll of top UK universities indicated the IB middle years program is a good preparation for the diploma program, which was preferred by 80% of universities polled. With an IB education, students develop a breadth and depth of knowledge, they are known to stay the course and not drop out of university, they approach knowledge with alternative views, share a deeper understanding of critical thinking and research, and they know how to work under stress.
For more information: http://dwightseoul.org/
Dr. Siva Kumari, C. M. Rubin, Kevin Skeoch
Photos courtesy of Ian Wilson and the Dwight School.
In The Global Search for Education, join me and globally renowned thought leaders including Sir Michael Barber (UK), Dr. Michael Block (US), Dr. Leon Botstein (US), Dr. Linda Darling-Hammond (US), Dr. Madhav Chavan (India), Professor Michael Fullan (Canada), Professor Howard Gardner (US), Professor Yvonne Hellman (The Netherlands), Professor Kristin Helstad (Norway), Jean Hendrickson (US), Professor Rose Hipkins (New Zealand), Professor Cornelia Hoogland (Canada), Mme. Chantal Kaufmann (Belgium), Dr. Eija Kauppinen (Finland), State Secretary Tapio Kosunen (Finland), Professor Dominique Lafontaine (Belgium), Professor Hugh Lauder (UK), Professor Ben Levin (Canada), Professor Barry McGaw (Australia), Shiv Nadar (India), Professor R. Natarajan (India), Dr. Denise Pope (US), Sridhar Rajagopalan (India), Dr. Diane Ravitch (US), Sir Ken Robinson (UK), Professor Pasi Sahlberg (Finland), Andreas Schleicher (PISA, OECD), Dr. Anthony Seldon (UK), Dr. David Shaffer (US), Dr. Kirsten Sivesind (Norway), Chancellor Stephen Spahn (US), Yves Theze (Lycee Francais US), Professor Charles Ungerleider (Canada), Professor Tony Wagner (US), Sir David Watson (UK), Professor Dylan Wiliam (UK), Dr. Mark Wormald (UK), Professor Theo Wubbels (The Netherlands), Professor Michael Young (UK), and Professor Minxuan Zhang (China) as they explore the big picture education questions that all nations face today.
The Global Search for Education Community Page
C. M. Rubin is the author of two widely read online series for which she received a 2011 Upton Sinclair award, “The Global Search for Education” and “How Will We Read?” She is also the author of three bestselling books, including The Real Alice in Wonderland.
Follow C. M. Rubin on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@cmrubinworld
How Will We Read: Textbooks?
“Technology has great potential for improving individual and aggregate performance of the educational system” - Vineet Madan (Photo courtesy of McGraw-Hill Education)
It isn’t my imagination. My children’s backpacks got heavier with the weight of those textbooks over the past few years. And I don’t think the weight of student backpacks are just my concern. I heard a rumor that even tiger moms are advocating for lighter school backpacks.
So what have I tried as a solution to the problem in my home? Purchasing an extra set of textbooks (expensive!). Trying to convince my kids that a rolling backpack is cool and won’t trip up their friends in hallways (no way Mom!). Trying to purchase the superman-strength backpack model available with bottoms that won’t blow out and straps that won’t tear off in one semester (still looking). Trying to understand why we can’t lighten things up a little with some innovative help from technology (I like the sound of this idea).
Three out of four parents with school-age children recognize the McGraw-Hill name in education. How does a leading provider of learning tools plan to help learners worldwide attain the 21st century skills they need to succeed and perhaps lessen their loads in the process? I had the opportunity to discuss this with Vineet Madan, Vice President, McGraw-Hill Higher Education eLabs, where he leads digital strategy across the company.
How will the evolution of technology affect the way students use textbooks in school?
We have been evolving our products and services along with the technology that has been deployed in schools. If we look back at the CD Rom days, we were doing interactive science programs which combined the textbook with media elements such as video and audio clips which came along with the book. That was state of the art in digital education.
Over the past couple of years, as the markets we serve have become equipped with better technology, we have moved a number of those stand-alone resources onto the web. The next steps were to consider what teaching and learning could become, using the tools and content we’d already developed. This meant envisioning experiences that were exclusively web based. We now have science and math products that are completely web delivered. We have personalized learning programs such as The Power of U that can assess each student’s skill level and determine how each can progress through lessons most effectively, i.e. a personalized GPS for a learning experience.
With The Power of U we focused on math instruction. We took our field-tested content, and matched that up against where students are in their learning progression. For example, all students in a third or fourth grade class need to learn the same things by the end of the year, but the reality is that all students don’t learn the same things in the same way and at the same pace. For some students, reading the material and then doing an online tutorial session may be very effective. For another student, a high engagement and retention level may be about working in a teacher facilitated group with four or five students. We are able to track how students are doing in each of these different modalities and understand the skills that they still need to master for a curriculum, which in this case is math. That’s an example of ripping the spine off the book, taking advantage of the data that’s available, and building a new learning experience with what we believe will be significantly better learning outcomes.
“Personalization will help break the performance rut associated with today’s industrial production model of education.” - Vineet Madan
(Photo courtesy of Perry Township Metropolitan School District)
What are you doing to help teachers develop the skills to use these new products effectively?
We are looking at the teacher side of this in a couple of different ways. We’re collaborating with some of the schools of education to ensure that future teachers have access to the new products, tools, and training they’ll need before they start using them in the classrooms. The bigger issue concerns teachers who have been teaching for some time. We’re investing a lot of resources in professional development, product training, and product support. As we move further into software based learning tools in school environments, the onus is on us as well as on the school district to ensure we’re providing fully satisfactory levels of product training and product support. You can’t put online products out in the field where teachers don’t have ways of accessing support in real time.
Can you share an example of how technology can enhance a teacher’s experience in the classroom?
We have a new social studies product that officially comes out in January called Networks. It is a mix of a print and digital offering, and can actually be customized to be more print or digitally centric depending on teacher choice. There are tools built into the digital program that help the teacher with lesson planning. It makes sure that the topics teachers choose track against common core standards and the things that the teacher needs to measure. In an offline world, teachers have to do this manually. We are using software to make that a more efficient and supportive process for them.
“We now have science and math products that are completely web delivered.” - Vineet Madan (Photo courtesy of The Dwight School)
What are your predictions in terms of the shift from the printed textbook to the online textbook in the next 3 to 5 years?
Let me talk about what I think can happen and then what I think will happen. The availability of tablets and computers here and abroad in schools is still very limited. I think the average number of students to a computer in the US is 3 to 1. First of all, you need to have better computers in schools, you need to have greater bandwidth available, and teachers have to be ready to use technology in their teaching process. Those things must be in place first before the instructional model will change significantly. Children are generally comfortable using technology. The K-12 education market has not quite caught up to where consumers and many of these younger learners already are. So I would say that in the next three years, a significant amount of investment needs to be made in technology infrastructure and training. Some school districts in the US are making those investments now, but it isn’t happening universally.
So what is happening now, and will continue to happen, is the use of interactive whiteboards (nearly ubiquitous in UK classrooms now) and projectors to bring a digital experience into the middle of the classroom. The live integration of audio, video and simulations at point of instruction enhance lesson delivery.
As price points for digital devices drop and they become more widely available in classrooms, we’ll see a shift towards more guided and supported learning where individual students will navigate through a personalized content experience with guidance from teachers and from the software itself. Personalization will help break the performance rut associated with today’s industrial production model of education.
Final thoughts on McGraw-Hill Education’s digital focus going forward?
As a company, we believe technology has great potential for improving individual and aggregate performance of the educational system across all of our markets around the world. We are sharply focused on developing the educational technology that will have greatest impact in the teaching and learning experience. We believe that if the teaching and learning experience is facilitated with technology, student performance will be tracked at a finer level, and as a result, we can tailor more of the instruction to individual student needs. We have documented how our individualized learning tools used in education can result in significant student performance improvement levels — close to a full grade improvement. We are focused on refining our technology and making it broadly available to students and teachers at every level, anywhere in the world.
Vineet Madan and C. M. Rubin
C. M. Rubin is the author of the widely read online series, “The Global Search for Education,” and is also the author of three bestselling books, including “The Real Alice in Wonderland.”
Follow C. M. Rubin on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@cmrubinworld
