The Bottom Line A weekly commentary from inside the business community
World Market Seeking Globally Competitive Country - Must Be Educated May 20, 2009by Glenn Hamer
At BASIS School's Master Teacher Campaign Dinner this past Sunday, the retiring Chairman of Intel, Craig Barrett, offered a five point plan to restore America's K-12 education system. International benchmarks underscore the imperative to improve education here at home so that the U.S. can retain its global competitiveness. U.S. test results in math, science and reading have been flat for 40 years while other industrialized countries have improved their scores. The U.S. is now at the bottom 20th percentile of OECD countries in terms of math and science performance for high school students. This deterioration has serious implications for our nation's future. It is time to act on the reform plan offered by one of America's most revered business leaders.
The first prong of Dr. Barrett's proposal is to ensure good teachers are in every classroom. He pointed to Teach for America as a model program, which attracts the best and the brightest from America's top universities. Successful countries pull teachers from the top 10 percent of college graduates. In the U.S., we tend to recruit from the bottom 25 percent. He feels we need to completely reform colleges of education in the U.S. To do so, we must shift away from a focus on pedagogy and move towards a system that emphasizes subject matter expertise.
Second, we need to measure our progress using international benchmarks. Dr. Barrett joked that the political problem with national standards is that Republican's do not like a national program and Democrats do not like standards. Since our competition in today's global world goes beyond our state's borders, we should measure performance accordingly. Tests such as AIMS provide no information on how Arizona students are performing relative to the rest of the world.
Third, teachers should be paid for performance. Teacher quality is the only variable tied to student performance that is measurable. Dr. Barrett asked rhetorically what business could survive without some sort of pay for performance system. This creates some "tension" in the system, which is a necessary element for successful reform, according to Dr. Barrett. In Arizona, pay for performance programs have been marginal at best. Few schools or districts have pay for performance programs in place that truly link academic improvements in the classroom with the performance of individual teachers in a meaningful way. A lack of usable data combined with an unyielding adherence to the outdated seniority based pay system have made it difficult to implement functional pay for performance systems. Dr. Barrett mentioned a must-read recent report from the Goldwater Institute, which discusses an innovative compensation system designed to improve teacher quality.
Fourth, we need to have a real stick associated with high school graduation requirements with an appropriate level of math required. His stick? Drivers' licenses would be available only to those still in school seeking a high school degree or those that have already graduated.
And finally, Dr. Barrett believes that the private sector must get more involved to break up the public school monopoly. The master teachers program at BASIS, which uses private dollars to supplement the salaries of exceptional teachers, is one such example.
At this juncture in history, we must have the courage to make dramatic changes to our k-12 education system. Dr. Barrett's bold ideas provide a path forward toward improved international
competiveness for our students and future workforce.
Glenn Hamer is president & CEO of the Arizona Chamber of Commerce & Industry.
The Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry is committed to advancing Arizona's competitive position in the global economy by advocating free-market policies that stimulate economic growth and prosperity for all Arizonans. http://www.azchamber.com/.
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