Poor PISA performance requires radical curriculum rethink (Rep. Mike Honda)

How do we regain our standing, then? First, we must do a
better job outside the classroom of focusing on the overall needs of each
child. Students growing up in poverty confront a wide array of barriers to learning
such as healthcare, nutrition and safe learning environments, before they ever
enter the classroom. PISA suggests that once these socioeconomic differences
are factored out there is little difference between student performance at
public and private schools. The U.S., then, with the highest income inequality
and poverty rates among developed nations, must prioritize and offer equitable
learning opportunities in order to realize equitable learning outcomes.

Meeting the total needs of the family through the use of
community resources and concrete services is a start. A second, related lesson
from PISA shows how income inequalities are exacerbated by aggressive
competition between schools, a trend which PISA holds responsible for trapping
the most disadvantaged in the poorest performing schools. We must keep this in
mind as America clamors for a solution, clutching onto unscale-able charter
school and voucher program successes, while failing to fix inequities.

The third lesson requires changes inside the classroom.
China’s high-performing schools result from a combination of increased
inclusivity in the classroom (rather than focusing on a small elite), increased
teacher pay and training, reduced rote learning and a focus on problem-solving
activities.

All of these changes reflect a paradigm shift, not unlike
the one I called for in authoring the National Commission on Equity and
Excellence, to be launched by the U.S. Department of Education in January 2011.
Creating equity in our education system requires a radical curriculum rethink
and a tailored, not rote, approach to meeting each child’s needs.

Do this, and a mixture more of equity-minded measures, and
we begin to fix our student performance stateside, while simultaneously
ensuring our competitiveness globally. No need for us to fret in the wake of
China’s rankings, just a need to wake up to new realities and act accordingly,
and fast. Our children’s future, and the future competitiveness of this
country, hangs in the balance.

Crossposted from The Huffington Post. Rep. Mike Honda (D-Calif.) serves on the Appropriations
Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related
Agencies, and is a former teacher, school principal and school board member.