More about the book
I am very pleased to announce that Corwin Press will release my new book World Class Learners: Educating Creative and Entrepreneurial Students in association with the National Association of Elementary School Principal (NAESP) next month, June 2012. The book is about preparing global, creative, and entrepreneurial talents. It is my attempt to answer a number of pressing questions facing education today. These questions are exemplified by two new stories that have dominated the media recently, one around the Facebook IPO and the other the debt and jobs …

The Solutions magazine (print version volume 2, issue 2, page 38-43)  published my article about China’s education reform in April. Below is the abstract. The entire article is online at: Reforming Chinese Education.
When Shanghai, China, was awarded the number one spot for educational achievement by the Program for International Student Assessment, a number of Western countries began to ask what had sparked the country’s rise. One answer is five years of education reforms that began with the Chinese government’s recognition that it needs to improve its teaching system as the …

A version of this post is published in Kappa Delta Pi Record, 48(1), p. 17-22 in Feb. 2012.
To build a better education system, America must build on what we have—differentiation, uniqueness, and diversity.
It is one of the happy incidents of the federal system that a single courageous State may, if its citizens choose, serve as a laboratory; and try novel social and economic experiments without risk to the rest of the country.
–Justice Louis D. Brandeis, New State Ice Co. v. Liebmann, 1932
America is on the precipice of ruining its foundation …

Just in case you have not seen this, the Chronicle of Higher Education just published a commentary co-authored by Brian Coppola of University of Michigan and me.
Read the whole article on the site of the Chronicle site: http://chronicle.com/article/US-Education-in-Chinese/130669/
Here are some of the main points:
The education systems in China and the United States not only are headed in opposite directions, but are aiming at exactly what the other system is trying to give up.
In the United States, through programs such as No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top, …

“It makes no sense:” Puzzling over Obama’s State of the Union Speech
“It makes no sense” is perhaps President Obama’s favorite phrase, using it twice in his 2011 State of the Union speech. I like the sound of it and what lies behind it—a simple way to point out the obviously illogical things that need to change. That is how I feel about the education section of his speech. It makes no sense.
President Obama wants to win the future by “out-innovate, out-educate, and out-build the rest of the world.” “[I]f we …

I received an invitation to NBC’s Education Nation summit last week (September 20) by email. The letter has a date of July 22, 2010 and I was told it was sent via USPS. Somehow I never received the letter in the mail. I became aware of the invitation only through an email response to Leonie Haimson (for Parents Across America), who has been writing to NBC recommending me on September 19th. The invitation asked me to call a number and confirm my participation. Upon confirmation, “editorial team will reach out …

NBC News is convening an education summit in September.  “The two-day ‘Education Nation’ event in New York will be carried online, and is part of a week of programming concentrating on education issues on NBC News broadcasts such as “Today” and “Nightly News,” and the MSNBC, CNBC and Telemundo TV networks,” according to the AP story.
It is great that such a powerful media giant as NBC pays attention to education. Given the reach of NBC, this can be a very big deal for education. What will be said during this …

I was in Cape Town, South Africa to attend the 6th iNET (International Networking for Educational Transformation) conference last week. The conference theme this year is Equity and Excellence for All, a topic that has global appeal because every society is struggling to provide an excellent education for all students. South Africa is a particularly fitting place for this discussion as it works hard to bridge the huge gap between the few advantaged excellent schools with the many disadvantaged schools. The history of South Africa, specifically the Apartheid, has resulted …

I was interviewed yesterday by a reporter from Deutsche Welle asking me about a recent study of stress and depression of Chinese elementary school students. One of the questions was why.
“Two reasons, “ I said, “first there is intense competition among students. In China, what is considered good or successful is a comparative judgment. That is, it is not so much how well you do but how much better or worse are you compared with your peers. And the students are constantly reminded through all kinds of means of their …

Last week, I attended the National Conference of the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust in Birmingham England. This year, the conference theme is globalization. Thomas Friedman (author of The World Is Flat), Robert Compton (producer of Two Million Minutes), and myself were asked to address the topic in separate plenary sessions and breakfast sessions. Thomas Friedman appeared via video conferencing because he had to stay in DC for the Whitehouse state dinner President Obama hosted for the visiting Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
I have been very annoyed by the notion …