A ‘Sputnik Moment’ for Our Schools?

A ‘Sputnik Moment’ for Our Schools?

To the Editor:

Re “Top Test Scores From Shanghai Stun Educators” (front page, Dec. 7):
The time for complacency is over. Not only did Chinese students finish first on a highly recognized international standardized exam, but they also totally blew away the competition. The United States finished 17th in reading, 23rd in science and 31st in math.
This milestone for China’s ascendancy and threat to our nation’s future must serve as a wake-up call for action. The pressing question is, does President Obama really mean it when he stated,

“Fifty years later, our generation’s Sputnik moment is back”?

As a former Grumman engineer working on the lunar module, I can attest to the incredible creativity, drive and unity that the American people are capable of when faced with a challenge. As the former principal of the Bronx High School of Science, I recall how excellence in science and math education used to be a national priority.

Clearly, our nation’s priorities need a drastic and immediate realignment to ensure our future. The government must expand basic research, and the private sector must retool to provide the jobs that will attract college students to major in the sciences. Teacher training must be taken seriously so that America’s teachers once again become world class.
Our leaders must see the educational gap as a threat to our very survival. Let us not fail to recognize the gap as the “Sputnik moment” that it is.

Stanley BlumensteinNew York, Dec. 7, 2010

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To the Editor:

I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry when I read that Secretary of Education Arne Duncan received a “wake-up call” when seeing the test scores. He could have awakened sooner if he had asked an actual American teacher.

I have visited schools in small cities in China, and it is striking to see the students themselves as well as the teachers taking responsibility for learning. Believe it or not, American schools were once like that.

Phyllis O’ReillyPompton Plains, N.J., Dec. 7, 2010
The writer is a retired teacher.

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To the Editor:

The abysmal scores by the United States on the Program for International Student Assessment might not suggest a radical failure of our public education system after all.

If the lower scores are the result of an alternative educational value system, one that rejects drill and skill instruction in science, math and reading, and instead focuses on integrating these skills into a curriculum of critical thinking and experiential problem solving, the trade-off between higher test scores in basic skills versus a well-rounded, critically minded student is well worth it.

Unfortunately, our students are not being successfully educated in these terms either. So the bad news is even worse than reported.

We are not competitive in reading, math and science, as the tests indicate, and we are not leading the world in educating our youth to be critical and creative leaders in politics or industry.
Eric WeinerWest Orange, N.J., Dec. 7, 2010
The writer is an associate professor of education at Montclair State University.

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To the Editor:

American students don’t do well on international tests for a variety of reasons, but a major one is the poor state of the curriculum in most school districts. For example, the high school mathematics curriculum typically consists of a series of disconnected courses that do not build a fundamental framework for solving mathematical problems.

A better approach, used by most countries in the world, is an integrated math program that focuses on teaching and using key concepts from algebra, geometry and so on as students solve authentic math problems.

Only when we realize that our disconnected, fragmented curriculum needs radical change will we be able to significantly improve our scores on international math tests and our students’ mathematical abilities.

Elliott SeifPhiladelphia, Dec. 7, 2010
The writer is an educational consultant and a former professor of education at Temple University.

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To the Editor:

According to your article about international test scores, the United States ranks near the bottom in math. This news comes as Republicans are expected to push through extended tax cuts for the wealthiest 2 percent of the population while continuing to bewail our deficit. One has to ask if there’s a correlation here.

Julian SheffieldNew York, Dec. 7, 2010