Detroit Free Press published my comments on the current movement towards national standards today. You can read the online version here: http://www.freep.com/article/20090830/OPINION01/908300438/1069/OPINION01/National-education-standards-can-end-up-hurting-students
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A talk with Yong Zhao, conducted by Lucy Robertson, Educational Leadership assistant editor: http://ascd.org/Publications/Books/ASCD_Talks_With_an_Author.aspx
U.S. vs. China: Thoughtful Chinese Author Says U.S. Schools are Better: Comments about my book by Jay Mathews, education columnist for the Washington Post: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/class-struggle/2009/08/us_vs_china_thoughtful_chinese.html#more

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What is happening in China? and why I disagree with Bob Compton and his film 2 million minutes?
Just returned from a 10-day trip to China:
August 17, lecture at the training program for directors of Confucius Institutes in Beijing, flew to Kunming, Yunnan
18-19, meeting of the Board of Directors of the International Society for Chinese Language Teaching in Kunming, back to Beijing.
20, Presentation about Zon and trends of online language learning at Hanban, flew to Shanghai
21-22: Meetings with East China Normal University Press, Institute for Curriculum Research, Shanghai Municipal Education Commission’s …

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is now using nearly $5 billion to entice states to adopt internationally benchmarked standards. The National Governors Association (NGA) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) have argued forcefully for internationally benchmarking education standards as well in a report titled Benchmarking for Success. As a result, NGA and CCSSO are leading the Common Core State Standards Initiative, which aims to develop common standards in math and English. What has been used to justify “international benchmarking” and common standards is the claim that …

In my upcoming book “Catching Up or Leading the Way: American Education in the Age of Globalization,” I make the case the virtual world is real in many ways while schools continue to view technology as simply a tool to improve the teaching of traditional subjects. I saw a CNN story about emerging jobs yesterday. Out of the 7 jobs, the fastest growing and highest paying job is simulation developers–those who create virtual worlds and objects. The expected growth rate is 38% and salary is $58,163.
Our schools need to prepare …

While the US is pushing for common standards and a more uniform curriculum, China has been working to infuse more flexibility. According to a report by China Education(the report is in Chinese), the national daily education newspaper, Hubei, a province in central China, just unveiled its new high school curriculum implementation plan. Beginning this fall, the 400,000 high school freshmen in the province will be following the new curriculum. Unlike their predecessors, who took the same courses and used the same text books for all three years of high …

On August 6th, the Missouri State Board of Education voted to join the Common Standards Initiative. This means that only three states (Alaska, South Carolina, and Texas) are not part of this national movement. Unless something happens right now, the U.S. will enter a new era of education marked by standards. The traditional strengths of American education, which have already been eroded by NCLB, will be further damaged by these standards. And the damages may not be reversable.
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Thanks to teacherken, the video I did for Mobile Learning Institute has generated some very interesting discussions on Daily Kos
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One of the selling points of common academic standards for all states in the US is that they will ensure equity and fairness in the education a child receives, wherever he or she lives. But this is false advertisement.
First, the quality of education a child receives depends on the quality of his teachers, his school leaders, his friends, his family, and his neighborhood. If a school does not have high quality staff and leaders, no matter how high the bar is set at, the student will not receive the same …

This article Education in the Flat World: Implications of Globalization on Education was published in Edge Magazine (Phi Delta Kappa International), 2(4). 1-19. You can download the PDF version here.
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