One of the benefits of spending a whole week doing nothing but learn about a single foreign education system is that it forces you to consider the totality of things in a way that’s actually very difficult in one’s home environment. For example, I spend very little energy wondering how America’s schools could be improved [...]
All Posts Tagged: 'International Education'
A Teachable Moment in Fiji?
There’s been a lot of discussion on this blog and elsewhere recently about the value of teaching foreign languages and otherwise exposing students to cultures other than their own. On the latter point especially I’m inclined to agree that we must do more. For example, did you know that the government of Fiji has been [...]
English-Only Island, (Korea)
In a fairly strong approach to second language acquisition, the government of Korea is planning to create an entire English-only town on the island of Cheju, complete with elementary and secondary schools and colleges. It’s a way to boost students’ language skills, while also saving a chunk of the $3.3 billion that Korean students [...]
Suffer the Children II
This NYT article about child trafficking and forced labor in Africa is incredibly sad. UNESCO reports that youngsters in Sub-Saharan Africa are the least likely of anywhere in the world to attend primary education. The share of Sub-Saharan youngsters attending elementary schooling has increased 27% since 1999, but one third of youngsters still do not [...]
International Perspective
A new UNESCO report looks at educational issues internationally and finds progress but lots of room for growth. About 86 percent of primary-school aged children are enrolled in school, and Sub-saharan Africa, which has the lowest rate of youngsters attending primary school, increased primary school enrollments 27 percent between 1999 and 2004. Progress is [...]
Suffer the Children
UNICEF is trying to improve early childhood development in Iraq. This is obviously very, very difficult.
“Whether it is education, nutrition levels or access to basic services, the continued conflict taking place in Iraq is affecting all aspects of the lives of children,” says UNICEF Iraq Senior Programme Officer Geeta Verma.
I don’t mean to dismiss UNICEF’s [...]
Stupid and Happy
So, does Brookings’ Tom Loveless know how to work the press or what? It’s all about the counterintuitive, kids. The latest Brown Center Report on American Education shows that kids in countries with higher average math test scores are less likely to say they enjoy math and are good at it than kids from countries [...]
How to get to Sesame Street
This weekend I saw a noteworthy documentary – The World According to Sesame Street. For something I spent a lot of time watching when I was young (Bert and Ernie were my favorites), it’s not a show I’ve spent much time thinking about as an adult. This documentary gives a new perspective on what Sesame [...]
A World of Worries
In return for getting to the Capitol Hill Club by 9am on Tuesday, I got an excellent breakfast (there was salmon) and a snappy mini-disk that held OECD’s 421-page 2006 Education at “Glance”. While this tome of international education information might not have gotten a ton of press in the United States, (perhaps because there’s [...]
David Brooks on Higher Education: First, Maybe Second Stomach of Cow
David Brooks’ column($) about higher education in today’s NYTimes doesn’t sink to the fourth-stomach-in-cow level of his previous piece on gender and education. But it still misses the mark. For some reason, Brooks thinks higher education systems should be judged on their success in achieving every conceivable goal except…education.
After trying (and mostly failing) to set [...]
Margaret Spellings, World Traveler
Speaking of thinking about the problems facing children in other countries…CNN.com reports on the seven overseas trips Margaret Spellings has taken since becoming U.S. Secretary of Education a year and a half ago. Some conservatives are criticizing these trips as “junkets;” other commentators say the importance of education to America’s global “competitiveness” requires [...]
World Refugee Day
I spend most of my time thinking about problems with public education and other services for children here in the U.S. and how to solve them, so it’s easy to forget sometimes how serious the problems are facing children and families in many other parts of the world. Every so often, though, I get [...]
Are White Students Dragging Down Our International Standing?
Last week the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) released the 2006 Condition of Education, a congressionally mandated annual report of trends in American education. This year’s special analysis compared U.S. student performance to our global counterparts on a series of recent international assessments in reading, mathematics, and science. The study shows that while 4th [...]
Lowering Student Loan Default Rates: What One Consortium of Historically Black Institutions Did to Succeed 
College and Career-Ready: Using Outcomes Data to Hold High Schools Accountable for Student Success
03/11/10 | Kevin Carey is quoted on the rising costs of education in The Economist.
03/10/10 | Chad Aldeman Aldeman's False Fronts is quoted on Accuracy in Academia.
03/09/10 | Ben Miller is quoted on loan origination on the Firedog Lake blog.
03/07/10 | Kevin Carey calls for a Race to the Top in higher education in a column in The Chronicle of Higher Education.
03/08/10 | Andrew Rotherham's Eduwonk post on RTT finalists is quoted on Class Struggle.
03/07/10 | Andrew Rotherham is quoted on the success of MATCH in The Times-Picayune.
03/06/10 | Eduwonk's reaction to Ohio's status as a RTT finalist is cited in a Wall Street Journal editorial.
03/05/10 | Andrew Rotherham's reaction to New York's status as a Race to the Top finalist is cited on National Journal.