What does Finland, Hong Kong, Japan, Ontario, Poland, Shanghai, Singapore, and Taiwan have in common? They are home to some of the world’s top-performing school systems. Notice who is missing? The United States. Why is that?
In a recently released report, titled “No Time to Lose: How to Build a World-Class Education System State by State,” a bipartisan group of state lawmakers and legislative staffers share the findings of an 18-month quest to figure out what schools can do here to become top-performing.
Three things were found:
The first difference between top-performing districts and districts in the U.S. is found, surprisingly, at the lowest level of education, the kindergarten level. In fact, Roy Takumi, the state representative from Hawaii, said the American early education system is “woefully inadequate.”
What the National Conference of State Legislators (NCSL) found was that all, yes ALL, of the top-performing districts heavily invest in their early education programs. According to the NPR, “Ontario, for example, offers free, full-day kindergarten not only to 5-year-olds but to 4-year-olds too.”
That is not always the case here. Districts that have higher poverty rates often have children arrive to school hungry. This causes students to lack focus and may lead to a decrease in important cognitive and noncognitive skills. This problem could be addressed if, and that is a big IF, districts here in the U.S. offered quality preschool.
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