Global student slump: More money hasn鈥檛 helped. What will?
Sharfa聽Abbaker聽easily identifies what helped her be a successful student: her school鈥檚 high expectations and teachers who have been available at every turn.
When she first moved from Sudan to London, she spoke only Arabic. At 11 years old, she was tasked with adjusting to schooling delivered in a language she didn鈥檛 speak, while adapting to a new culture and living with parents who鈥檇 never attended college.
Within a few years, she was fluent in English and acing exams. Now 16, she鈥檒l be prepping for A-levels a year earlier than expected.聽Sharfa聽attends Michaela Community School, a free state school in London聽聽its military-like discipline. Its students, from London鈥檚 second-poorest borough, had among the highest scores in England for non-selective state schools on 2019 national tests.聽
Why We Wrote This
Improving student achievement is a complicated problem, but countries often apply a simple solution: money. With little progress being made despite more spending, what other options should be explored?
Figuring out how to achieve good student outcomes is on the minds of educators around the world, given the growing body of evidence that shows wealthy countries have been throwing money at sluggish education systems with little effect.聽Resources are important to achievement, especially in less affluent countries. But observers say聽opening the coffers isn鈥檛 a specific enough answer to a complex problem, one that is often intertwined with politics and socioeconomic inequalities.
鈥淢oney does matter, but the way of spending it matters more,鈥� says聽Mailis聽Reps, minister of education for Estonia, the small European country that has seen results in recent years with its focus on teacher salaries and early childhood education.
Autonomy and the ability to pivot quickly 鈥撀燽oth for countries, and individual schools, like Sharfa鈥檚 鈥撀燼llow for better student outcomes and lead to more focused decisions,聽analysts note.聽That鈥檚 happening in Estonia, and in China, which has also focused on improving the lot of teachers. Yet how should educators get good information about student progress, when standardized testing has become one of the most hotly-debated topics in American education? And how should societies balance out less-than-supportive home environments, which research shows ultimately matters more than anything else?
Switching gears is not always easy in a global environment where the go-to solution has been to increase funding. Despite spending that jumped 15% per student on average,聽math, reading, and science scores are virtually stagnant across聽Organisation聽for Economic Cooperation and Development countries, based on the December results of the OECD鈥檚聽Programme聽for International Student Assessment (PISA).
鈥淎lmost everything takes time. It doesn鈥檛 happen overnight,鈥� says Eric聽Hanushek, an economist at the Hoover Institution, the policy think tank at Stanford University in California.聽
Easy聽options are sometimes the least effective 鈥撀燽uilding fancy computer facilities, making classes smaller. 鈥淒ecreasing class sizes is just about the most expensive thing you can do,鈥� says Mr.聽Hanushek, referring to labor costs. But, he notes, parents and politicians love it.聽
What鈥檚 harder to do, is what matters the most: Making changes significant enough that they rally parents, teachers, and administrators to help students improve.聽
Estonia as a model
In Estonia, the country鈥檚 best-in-Europe PISA scores have made it an education star.聽A聽former Soviet Republic still struggling with high poverty rates, the country is careful with its budget. The聽government, which spends about 30% less per student than the聽OECD聽average, lately has been putting money into 鈥渢eacher salaries and providing equitable education鈥� for all students, says Ms. Reps. That includes聽聽make learning materials and extracurriculars free of charge, and聽enrolling nearly 90% of all 3-year-olds聽in early childhood education.聽Schools can decide how and when to spend money, whether it鈥檚 by offering teacher bonuses, building infrastructure, or increasing professional development time.
鈥淓stonia鈥檚 is a very light, nimble, and responsive school system,鈥� says Andreas聽Schleicher, the聽OECD聽statistician who created PISA. 鈥淓ach school decides how they hire and who they hire, while competing and also collaborating with one another,鈥� he says.聽聽聽
Ludger聽Woessmann, an economics professor at the University of Munich who once wrote an article titled聽鈥�,鈥澛爄s an advocate for autonomy.
Autonomy can give schools the needed flexibility to serve their populations best, whether it鈥檚 more extracurriculars, access to free textbooks, or mental health counseling,聽he writes in an email.
Yet success also requires skilled administrators, who are making the right strategic decisions with good information.聽What鈥檚聽critical, the author聽explains,聽is that this 鈥渇reedom鈥� is linked with accountability for outcomes, such as with 鈥渆xternally comparative testing and central exit exams.鈥�
One of the key areas that schools and districts need the ability to control financial decisions around is that of teachers, says Katharine Birbalsingh, the founder and headmistress of Michaela Community School, back in London. Ms. Birbalsingh says that despite negative press for her rigid methods,聽she鈥檚 enjoyed the freedom to focus on developing a strong leadership team and improve teacher training to help her students.
China boosts teachers
Great teaching is a concept that China, the top PISA finisher of late, has been driven to implement. Though PISA includes only four of China鈥檚 most prosperous provinces, to much criticism, the formerly impoverished country has come a long way in a few decades.聽
As China has expanded its school system to include about 250 million students, the education ministry鈥檚 recent focus has honed in on system quality. It鈥檚 done so in part by 鈥渉eightening teachers鈥� social status鈥� and boosting their salaries 鈥� words plucked directly from its聽. Teachers in China are enjoying the highest social status in the world,聽聽the 2018聽Varkey聽Foundation Global Teacher Status Index.
The system also focuses on training and professional development, and educators often enjoy prep time per week that鈥檚 among the highest in the world.
But what about teacher pay?
Educator pay is a hot-button issue globally, even as the correlation to student achievement is聽debated. The pay issue is complex, as it not only involves issues such as how to fund education, but also how should salaries best be distributed. (For example, the teachers鈥� unions would prioritize seniority, while reformers might prefer incentive-based pay.)
Mr.聽Hanushek, the economist, estimates teachers in the U.S. could make 22% more outside of teaching. Where teachers are paid lower than local market rates for labor, school performance can suffer, found one聽聽published in the Journal of Public Economics.
Meanwhile, a growing body of evidence finds that higher pay聽聽in the system, while another聽聽hypothesized it also attracts more able individuals into teaching, which boosts student performance. 鈥淭he idea is that each country gets the teachers it wants and deserves,鈥� write the authors.聽
Yet raising all salaries doesn鈥檛 automatically 鈥渃hange the quality of instruction,鈥� says Thomas Dee, an economist and professor of education at Stanford. 鈥淏ecause decades of experience show there are serious logistical and political challenges to designing systems that drive teacher quality,鈥� he says. 鈥淚n part because that means higher pay for the best teachers, and escorting persistently low-quality teachers out the door.鈥�
Mr. Dee has long advocated for compensating teachers based on how their students perform. Critics of 鈥渕erit pay,鈥� meanwhile, say it creates harmful competition between teachers, corrupts school culture, and over-emphasizes testing.
Washington, D.C. provides one of American education鈥檚 hotly-debated examples of merit pay, implemented under then-chancellor Michelle Rhee. A decade after launch, studies have shown that the District of Columbia鈥檚 teacher evaluation system 鈥斅爓hich includes $25,000 bonuses for the most 鈥渆ffective鈥� teachers 鈥斅爃as seen lower-performing teachers聽 And, student outcomes have risen.聽
Yet, despite all the investment in research around the money question, studies unequivocally show that what matters most is home environment, specifically, the involvement of the parents and how much they encourage learning.聽That raises other issues, including how to adjust for kids who don鈥檛 have constructive home environments, much less how politics play into related factors such as addressing socioeconomic inequality.
鈥淚ndeed, it鈥檚 all about family. It鈥檚 about the attitude the family has about education,鈥� says Ms. Birbalsingh, the Michaela Community School headmistress. 鈥淎nd then, you need to combine that with a good school.鈥�
Good schools, she adds, are all about teacher training. 鈥淭he assumption is you can either get a 鈥榞ood teacher鈥� or a 鈥榖ad teacher,鈥� but it鈥檚 really about how you train a teacher. It鈥檚 about teaching methods.鈥澛犅�
