Editorial in the NY Times re US educational results and methods VS other countries.

Nothing particularly new, emphasizes egalitarian approach to getting resources to schools, and in Finland, the approach to training teachers is highlighted.

Says nothing about NCLB testing and standards such as “Common Core” recently undergoing somewhat rocky implementation in US, nor anything about structural changes that have been successfully implemented in parts of US.

At minimum, it should have mentioned US is a huge educational experiment, with an enormous variety of approaches and practices, with a lot of local control. That’s worth some money in the bank.

Also glaringly missing here is any emphasis on potentials of new technology for learning as one way to help US “compete”. Also no recognition that US does produce a LOT of innovation even though a lot of tests show poor student performance. IOW, we must be doing “something right”… if so, what is it?

Interjecting a bit of cynicism here, one, but not the only, way US produces innovation, is by attracting best and brightest from around the world to US graduate schools and research universities, and by being a magnet for certain “high achieving families” to emigrate here. This may or may not continue to be the case long-term, as free MIT, Harvard, Stanford, CAL etc online courses now available without a green card, or plane ticket.

Disappointingly uninspired editorial from one of our “leading newspapers”. OTOH, NYTimes has consistently done a comprehensive job reporting on changes in education involving new forms such as charter schools, and new methods such as MOOC, and other online learning tools.