OECD educational rankings show the US losing ground

In a recent report American children are falling behind their global counterparts in all areas. The US currently ranks 14th in reading, 17th in science and 25th in math.

With the massive state budget shortfalls and the failed no child left behind program it comes as no surprise that American children are not receiving the highest level of education. We have less teachers and less resources for these teachers. Parents are also less engaged due to a new level of concern on their own jobs and money.

Thanks to the policies of George W. Bush, states had less money available and the no child left behind program was never funded properly. Another problem of the no child left behind program that President Obama seems happy to continue is the emphasis on testing as a means for measuring success. Unfortunately the most successful people don't always test out well. There are many examples of this in American business. Additionally this mentality leads to teaching to the test which is clearly not the best form of education.

For some reason politicians always want the simple answer and test results is about as simple as you can get. This suggests our politicians have never been educators and just having been a student doesn't make you qualified to determine the metrics upon which educators should be measured. What is particularly odd about this idea is that it is typically supported more by Republicans yet Republicans claim that there should be less government involvement. Well a federal mandate is not less government.

I think there are a multitude of other factors that play into a quality education which are completely ignored in our public policy. If there were easy answers those answers would be obvious by looking at the most successful nations yet they each have a unique educational style.

The biggest thread that I see is personal responsibility. The idea of personal responsibility has been eroding for years in America and our educational output has reflected that change, while countries like Japan have placed a very high level of importance on education and expect more from their students. When a child's parents put an emphasis on education it becomes important to the student and similarly when education is ignored in the home the grades suffer. This occurs both among the rich and the poor. When you start to look at other factors like money and educational styles you can start to make a good profile for what makes a successful student, but thinking it is a easy as improving test scores is using the wrong method to do the right thing.