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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This is a video of Yong Zhao’s keynote speech at Asia Socity’s A World Class Education conference on July 11, 2009, Washington DC. It is titled Catching Up or Leading the Way: American Education in the Age of Globalization after his new book.

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Ed Week Post about this video: http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/curriculum/2009/08/michigan_scholar_questions_com.html
Will more standards, accountability, and higher test scores make American students more globally competitive? In the video, Yong Zhao retells his personal story and questions the wisdom of current US education policy. He argues that global competitiveness comes from a diversity of talents and recognition of individual passions and creativity. This is part of a film series produced by the Mobile Learning Institute’s called “A 21st Century Education”

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Yong Zhao has been leading the development of Zon, the world’s first MMORPG for learning Chinese language and culture. It provides an immersive environment for learning Chinese through interactions with both pre-programmed content and other players, including live tutors from China. Log in and play now.
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Dr. Yong Zhao is a Foundation Distinguished Professor in the School of Education at the University of Kansas. He previously served as the Presidential Chair, Associate Dean, and Director of the Institute for Global and Online Education in the College of Education, University of Oregon, where he was also a Professor in the Department of Educational Measurement, Policy, and Leadership. Prior to Oregon, Yong Zhao was University Distinguished Professor at the College of Education, Michigan State University, where he also served as the founding director of the Center for Teaching and …

It seems that the U.S. will soon have national education standards that will be adopted and implemented in most of the nation. This is a very significant political victory for the national standards proponents, who have been working on it for over two decades. The first President Bush and President Clinton tried it but failed. Now President Obama will have it without even having to convince Congress or the nation, as he is trying with health care reform. This is the part that is strange and not right—something that will …