The results of the Brexit referendum and U.S. presidential election will go down in history as the biggest surprises of 2016. The final results defied all predictions. The polls were wrong, as were the pundits. Though they predicted that the majority of Brits would vote to remain in the EU, more ended up voting to leave. Though they predicted a win for Clinton, Trump is the one moving into the White House this January. “From the US election to Brexit…the polls set voters and pundits up for a fall,” writes Siobhan …

TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study) beat PISA by one week. It just released its 2015 results. Within hours of the release, Google News has already collected over 10,000 news stories reacting to the results from around the world, some sad, some happy, some envious, and some confused. The biggest news is, however, nothing new: Children in East Asian countries best at maths. They were the best 20 years ago when TIMSS was first introduced in 1995. They were the best in all subsequent cycles.
Singapore, Hong Kong SAR, …

Never Send a Human to do a Machine’s Job: Top 5 Mistakes in Ed Tech[1]
First published in the Answer Sheet of Washington Post on October 6 2015
A few weeks ago, the OECD released a report[2] that essentially says investing in technology does not lead to better education outcomes, measured by PISA scores. The study finds “no appreciable improvements in student achievement in reading, mathematics or science in the countries that had invested heavily in ICT for education. And perhaps the most disappointing finding of the report is that technology is …

Executive Summary [full report]
Interest in learning from Asia’s high-performing education systems has grown rapidly in recent years. A flurry of research reports, media stories, and personal accounts of how Asia’s best education systems achieved their superb rankings on international league tables has been produced in the quest to improve education systems around the world (OECD, 2011) (Tucker, 2011) (Tucker, 2014) (Jensen, 2012) (Barber, Donnelly, & Rizvi, 2012). However, most of the popular observations and suggestions fail to point out the most important lessons to be learned from Asia.
The lessons from …

The year 2015 will be remembered as the beginning of a new era in Chinese education, according to some Chinese press[in Chinese]. It is the first year when a suite of policies aimed to transform the college entrance exam system or gaokao is to be implemented. The reforms are not a simple redesign of the exam, but rather a transformation of the entire college admission system. Because of the life-altering power of gaokao and the magnitude of the changes, this round of reform will likely bring transformative changes to education …

*Published in Society 52(2), pp 129-135, April 2015, a special issue of the journal commemorating the 30th anniversary of A Nation at Risk. This is the submitted version. For the final  published version please visit: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12115-015-9872-8
**In recognition of its significance and influence, I purposefully chose to emulate the style and language of A Nation at Risk in this paper.
“Our Nation is at risk. Our once unchallenged preeminence in commerce, industry, science, and technological innovation is being overtaken by competitors throughout the world” (National Commission on Excellence in Education, 1983, p. …

China Encourages College Students to Suspend Study and Become Entrepreneurs and Innovators
“To foster a new engine of growth [in China], we need to encourage mass entrepreneurship and innovation, and mobilize the wisdom and power of the people,” said China’s Premier Li Keqiang said at the 2015 World Economic Forum in Davos yesterday. This is not the first time China’s top leaders have expressed their belief that entrepreneurship, innovation, and creativity will fuel the world’s second largest economy’s future growth. “Just imagine how big a force it could be when the …

Reviews, Interviews, and News
Diane Ravitch (Nov. 20 2014). The Myth of Chinese Super Schools. New York Review of Books.

Rick Hess (Nov. 13, 2014) Yong Zhao’s Biting Critique of the Chinese Edu-Miracle. Education Week Blog.

Jay Mathews (Sept. 14 2014) Why admiring Chinese test scores might hurt U.S. schools, The Washington Post
Didi Kirsten Tatlow (Sept 14 2014) Q. and A.: Yong Zhao on Education and Authoritarianism in China, The New York Times
Ryan Allen (Oct. 7 2014). New Books in Education, Audio Interview with Yong Zhao.
Jennifer Berkshire (Oct. 6, 2014). Questioning Authoritarianism, an interview with Y. Zhao. EduShyster.
David …

Originally published in China-US Focus on October 23, 2015. Adapted from my book Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Dragon: Why China has the Best (and Worst) Education System in the World.
China’s capacity for innovation has become a hot topic for China, the U.S., and the rest of the world today. There is no question that China must innovate its way out of the “middle income trap.” But whether the country – which over the last thirty years has proven to be able to make everything – can create anything …

Representative Lew Frederick has served in the Oregon House for the past five years. Before that, he was a teacher, a reporter, and a district administrator Oregon. “He has witnessed how manufactured crises, extreme deprivation of resources, and radical overhaul proposals work together to repurpose public education in a way the public has not voted on.”
Next Steps in Student Success
By Lew Frederick
Before we talk about “rigor” and “discipline” and “accountability” for kids, we have to insist that adults are held to that standard. When we design school programs, especially when …