Mass. schools must be transformed to compete globally

Originally published in the Boston Globe | MARCH 25, 2014. By Michael Barber and Henry C. Dinger.

While Massachusetts is widely acknowledged to have the best-performing students in the nation, at least as measured by national and international test scores, there are increasing signs that educational progress in the state has stalled. In a recent survey, sixty-nine percent of employers reported difficulty hiring people with the knowledge and skills to fill available jobs. Public colleges and universities are spending tens of millions of dollars to provide remedial courses so that graduates from Bay State high schools – who have “passed” the MCAS test – can master college-level material.

Moreover, it is no longer enough for Massachusetts students simply to compete with their American peers. As a center of intellectual talent and innovation, the state competes directly with China, Hong Kong, and Singapore. International performance data make it clear that even the best and brightest pupils in the Massachusetts school system, our top talent, fall far short of the best in the world. Some nations, especially in the Asia-Pacific region, are not only ahead of us, but pulling away. Other places, such as Poland and Germany, are improving faster than we are and will leave us trailing if we don’t take serious steps to prevent it.

Unlike other states and countries with mineral resources or gentle climes, Massachusetts’ only competitive economic advantage is our highly educated workforce. But truly excellent schools are essential not only, or even primarily, to create a pool of skilled employees but also to sustain the kind of informed, sophisticated communities where we all want to live and to raise our children. We want our kids, all of them, to have the tools they will need to thrive and prosper – here in Massachusetts.

Read the full article at bostonglobe.com