Last week, getideas.org published a post of mine on its Thought Leader’s blog. I am reposting it here.
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In my new book Catching Up or Leading the Way, I mostly focus on issues facing education in the United States noting that the current education reform efforts, with their emphasis on standards, testing, and outcome-based (read test score-based) accountability, are unlikely to make Americans “globally competitive.”
Instead, what America needs is an education system that cultivates a diversity of talents and develops “unique niche talents” that are not available at a cheaper price …

Chris Knott, Principal of the International Baccalaureate World Elementary School in Raleigh, North Carolina shared this excellent song by Tom Chapin–it’s a funny, but really sad description of what has happened to education in the U.S..
http://www.notonthetest.com/index.html
Thanks, Chris.

10-12-2009: WNYC’s Brian Lehrer show interview about my book: http://www.wnyc.org/shows/bl/episodes/2009/10/12

To those who want to learn more about innovation and creativity in China, I suggest that you listen to to read the transcript of this series produced by PRI and reported by The World’s Asian Correspondent: Mary Kay Magistad. While it is very consistent with what I have written in my book, Catching Up or Leading the Way, it draws on different sources.
Part III of the series examines “the ways China’s educational system thwarts innovation.” Here are some of the highlights:
“Innovation comes not just from infrastructure and investment – it …

Yesterday, Sean Cavanagh, a reporter of Education Week, wrote about my book on Ed Week’s Curriculum Matters blog under the title Chinese-American Scholar on American Education, and Foreign Competition. Thanks.