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 …

More about the book:

1-10-2010: Lansing State Journal Op Ed: Education “Race” is Counterproductive.
12-17-2009: Panel Discussion about Education in the US on China Radio International, Beijing: 2009-12-17 Education in the US
12-1-2009 The Daily Riff reviews the book in its “Favorite Books” section: http://www.thedailyriff.com/2009/12/high-scores-but-low-ability-the-chinese-curse.php
12-4-2009: Kappan‘s editor Joan Richardson interview with me: http://www.pdkintl.org/kappan/k_v91/docs/k0912ri1.pdf
11-26-2009: Kompas, an Indonesian newspaper article cites my book. Here is the Google translation from Indonesian to English.
11-11-2009: Primary Source reviews my book: http://www.primarysource.org/catching-up-or-leading-the-way
09-11-2009: Fred Deutsch writes about the book on his blog: http://www.school-of-thought.net/?p=898
29-10-2009: Laura Berman writes in Detroit News about …

The Fall issue of AASA Journal of Scholarship and Practice includes a commentary of mine on the common core standards. This article gives me more space to lay out my views and bring evidence to support them than the Op-ed piece published in Detroit Free Press. The issue also includes a thoughtful editorial on standards. You can read the entire issue here and my article starts from page 46.
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Yesterday(September 24, 2009)  Secretary of Education Arne Duncan delivered his first major speech about the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) 1965. The law’s last reauthorization took place in 2002 and resulted in what is known today as No Child Left Behind (NCLB). In his speech, Duncan acknowledged that NCLB has significant flaws and promised to work with Congress to correct the problems. But based on this and his previous speeches as well as the actions of the US Department of Education under his leadership, I must …

“Singapore Teachers: Lead. Care. Inspire.”
This is the vision statement recently unveiled by the Ministry of Education (MOE) in Singapore for its teachers. Since 2008, the MOE has engaged in a nationwide effort to develop a vision for the teaching profession that express “the aspiration of the professionals and points the way forward,” according to a speech by Ms. Ho Peng, Director-General of Education of the Ministry of Education delivered on August 26, 2009. The MOE worked with teachers and school leaders to identify the core values and aspirations of educators. …

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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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 …

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 …