Vivien Stewart A World Class Education Summary

In Vivien Stewarts’ book, A World-Class Education, she broke down the problems and positives of education in the United States and other countries. “Not only is the United States falling behind in terms of education quantity, but there is also increasing alarm about quality of its education” (Stewart, 2012). Globally, United States struggles in several ways with international assessments. By reviewing the international comparisons, there are five large factors. The first factor is that other countries do not test all of their students. The second is the diversity factor. The United States is more diverse than other countries. The next factor is the tests itself. They are geared toward Asia’s culture. The fourth reason is the issue with the

United States vastly out numbers their country. Canada’s achievement was next. Their school structure, however, resembles ours. Alberta and Ontario’s increase in achievement was due to four factors: provincewide strategy, collaborations with unions and other stakeholders, focus on instructional content and capacity, and approach to teacher effectiveness. Finland’s success, on the other hand, is due to the fact of commitment to equity, excellent teachers, broad and individualized curriculum, and professional accountability. “Today, Finland is often cited as a model for education in a knowledge society, and it is a magnet for school reformers all over the world” (Stewart, 2012). Finland has an advantage over other countries. It cannot really be compared to the United States, although it is. Another factor of comparison if the high expectations for teachers and students. I feel our teachers are held to a high standard, but if students are not passing the teachers are falsely accused of doing something wrong. Their expectations and motivations are solely encouraged by teachers and little by parents. Not in all schools but in the schools I have had experience with. “The high-performing systems that serve as examples in this chapter vary in size, culture, population, and economic base, yet all have made substantial progress in educational

There is not a formula to plug in variables for success in education. Stewart did, however, pinpoint some differences of making effective teachers and school leaders. I did not have any experience with this, but attraction and recruiting of teachers. No teacher in this country is recruited versus other countries. It is simply the career they chose. The preparation of twenty-first century teachers, and students. The United States does not do well when it comes to preparing their teachers. The way professional development is addressed is also an issue. The focus is not effective. For professional development to be meaningful, it has to be focused and effective to each teacher’s problem areas. Which leads to the next point of evaluations and compensation. Feedback and improvements are necessary to any teacher. The approach of the United States, in some cases, is opinion based. Principals and administrators able to score observations are biased. It is not possible to score a teacher objectively when you work in the same building with them. It is human nature to bond and build relationships, positive and negative. The next way to develop effective teachers and leaders is by eliminating poor teacher distribution. The balance of experience in schools is not always