We speak with Samuel E. Abrams of Teachers College, Columbia University. The root problems in K12 education — including poverty-related stress and underpaid and underprepared teachers — are pervasive and expensive to fix. So instead, the U.S. has adopted a “commercial mindset,” measuring success through standardized test scores and increasingly outsourcing school management to for-profit and nonprofit corporations. Dr. Abrams explains what we can learn from Finland’s education system.
Overview
00:00-00:42 Intros
00:42-03:01 What “education and the commercial mindset” means
03:01-05:26 Examples of for-profit and non-profit privatization
05:26-13:57 Effects of privatization
13:57-20:01 What can be done to enable public education to better meet student needs
20:01-21:45 Separation of church and state
21:45-28:37 Potential positive lessons from business; W. Edwards Deming; rejecting value-added measurement
28:37-32:13 Comparison of U.S. and Finnish education systems
32:13-35:27 Key changes that can be made in U.S. education system
35:27-36:50 Outro
Transcript
Click here to see the full transcript of this episode.
References
- Book Education and the Commercial Mindset by Sam Abrams
- Book Out of the Crisis by By W. Edwards Deming
- Book The Visible Hand: The Managerial Revolution in American Business by Alfred D. Chandler, Jr.
- Book Up the Down Staircase by Bel Kaufman
- Book 110 Livingston Street: Politics and Bureaucracy in the New York City School System (Foundations of Sociology) by
- Book Helping Kids Succeed by Paul Tough
- Article Alternative Public School Systems by Kenneth B. Clark – Harvard Educational Review (Spring 1968 Edition)
Credits
Soundtrack by Podington Bear