Issue link: http://educator.cta.org/i/1480924
D U R I N G S U M M E R V A C A T I O N five years ago, veteran middle school music teacher Keith Ballard, a member of Sweetwater Education Association, found himself in the office of one of the top education officials in Estonia. It wasn't unusual for Estonia to welcome educators from around the world, since they have the highest-rated schools among Western countries. The administrator told Ballard that Chinese educators, in particular, frequently came on state-sponsored trips to get ideas for improving their education system, which already was ranked as No. 1 in the world. Out of curiosity, Ballard asked the administrator how many of those visitors had been from the United States. The offi- cial didn't have to rack his brain for an estimate. He'd seen precisely two American "educational tourists" in the past two decades — and that included Ballard. Ballard is convinced that this one distinction helps explain why students in so many countries, from Japan to Canada, continue to outperform American students on the Program for International Student Assessment exam known as PISA. A random sample of 15-year-olds in more than 80 coun- tries will take the PISA exam this fall. When the test was last given in 2018, nearly two dozen countries outperformed American students in read- ing and science while 35 beat our students in math. We've landed in about the same spot since the exam was first adminis- tered two decades ago. But while similar results in past years have prompted major educational reforms in countries such as Germany, the United States' persistently middling status has triggered little more than passing headlines. Ballard had to ask himself: If we can't even acknowledge that we might have something to learn from other countries, let alone dedicate resources the way those countries do to help our teachers study what the best "A key factor Ballard discovered is that countries with top education systems offer more support to both families and teachers than the United States." Stealing From the World's Best Schools Teacher shares solutions after self-funded journey to top schools in two dozen countries By Brooke Staggs Keith Ballard with elementary schoolchildren in Ireland. 13 O C T O B E R / N O V E M B E R 2 0 2 2 Spotlight