US education system falling | Opinions

The American education system is broken, whether we like it or not. For me, sitting in statics class with instructor Roger Chang made this all too evident. 

Comparing our education system with that of China, a country that dominated the U.S. in every category measured by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, he simply claimed that if he threw American students into the Chinese education system, they would drown, which — dishearteningly — I believe.

Although the solutions to our educational problems may be difficult to find, the statistics that show that the problems are not. 

In five out of the eight criteria measured by the OECD, including math, science and multiple reading scales, American students were determined to be average. 

Furthermore, the U.S. was below average in math, a truly horrifying statistic. When students in the

world’s largest economy test worse than students in 30 other countries, something is wrong.

A decade ago, the U.S. had the highest percentage of college graduates in the world — we are now ninth and slipping. Furthermore, the World Economic Forum reports that the U.S. is ranked a shocking 51st in the world in science and math education. 

Is it any wonder, then, that the death of Steve Jobs has the country worried that the search for the next great inventor may lead us to China?

Statistics showing our lack of competitive education could continue indefinitely, but it’s not all bad news for America. 

Although our students struggle to compete with their foreign peers, the top minds in the world still disproportionately come from the U.S.

Just this year, the U.S. produced seven Nobel Prize winners, to go along with four more from last year. But is this simply a product of our former education system? 

Possibly, but if it is, we can take solace in the fact that the majority of these great minds are educating the next generation of Nobel Prize recipients in our college classrooms.

Nevertheless, a supremely intelligent percentile does not make a competitive country. If we are to compete abroad, as we did throughout the 20th century, then something has to give. 

The mixed results from George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind and the controversies surrounding Obama’s Race to the Top show that although we are attempting to improve our system, it’s not being done so effectively.

If there are so many effective educational systems abroad, it seems irresponsible to not look to them for ideas. The fact that 50 countries currently have better education systems than the U.S. should be a wakeup call that something must be done.

At the high school level, more emphasis should be placed on advanced level classes. I personally attended high school at an international school in Scotland, where the International Baccalaureate program was essentially forced upon my peers and me.

Out of a class of just more than 30 people, 100 percent graduated and 100 percent are now in college. Undeniably, the rigors of that program prepared me for what I would face at Virginia Tech. 

While I respect the Advanced Placement program and its innumerable benefits, the IB more closely replicates the total academic immersion that can be found throughout countries like China and India, something that we need more of here in the U.S.   

There are few things that bother me more than when I hear a physical sciences major claim they don’t know how to write “because they’re an engineer.” 

It’s frustrating because I believe that communication, the most fundamental skill we have, should have been emphasized in high school.

Although the IB, and programs like it, has flaws, it did force students, whether they wanted to become engineers or economists, to become immersed in subjects they would have otherwise avoided. 

If programs like the IB, le bac (France), and the British A-Levels are successful at putting students into top universities, why not utilize a similar system for students here?

The aspect that I believe sets these programs apart from traditional high school curriculum is that they are immersive. After two years of course work in IB, we took 18 total exams for our classes. All of our classes overlapped with another.

Students who may have struggled academically prior to the IB were thrown into a rigorous program and had no choice but to learn and grow, thus helping them gain entry into schools that may have otherwise eluded them.   

As Chang said, if he put our high school students into an Asian education system, we’d all sink. He’s not the first one to voice such an opinion. But how long will it take before Arne Duncan and the Department of Education heed the warning signs? Simply throwing money at successful schools and teachers is not the answer.

A revamping of our education system may be the only way to solve this issue. Everybody reading this has succeeded in their education. Now it’s time to make sure the next generation can compete in an increasingly interconnected world.

As Thomas Friedman wrote in his book, “The World is Flat,” businesses have “access to cheap genius anywhere in the world.” If we’re to ensure the stability of our own lives and that of the U.S., we must bring genius back home and that starts with our schools.