Book Summary: The Global Achievement Gap

The Global Achievement Gap: Why Even Our Best Schools Don't Teach the New Survival Skills Our Students Need—And What We Can Do About It by Tony Wagner (2008, Basic Books).

Tony Wagner, who is co-director of the Change Leadership Group at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a senior consultant to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, makes a strong case that our education system needs to address not only the gaps in opportunity (and thus, achievement) between white, upper income students and minority, economically disadvantaged students, but also a global achievement gap between even our "best" students (those attending public schools in affluent communities and even pricey private schools) and students in other industrialized nations. He says state assessments, as well as Advanced Placement exams, require only recall and recognition of fragmented, decontextualized information rather than evidence of higher order thinking skills that students need for success as 21st century workers, citizens, and lifelong learners. The accountability measures of No Child Left Behind, he says, have led to a dumbing down of state assessments and an over-emphasis on test preparation.

The centerpiece of his book is his recommendation that schools teach and assess seven survival skills that are needed as we deal with the transformation to a global knowledge economy, an information environment characterized by flux and glut, and new media technologies. Those skills are:

1. Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving
2. Collaboration Across Networks and Leading by Influence
3. Agility and Adaptability
4. Initiative and Entrepreneurialism
5. Effective Oral and Written Communications
6. Accessing and Analyzing Information
7. Curiosity and Imagination

He asserts that today's students are differently motivated. He recounts interviews with students and educators, as well as profiles of successful schools. He also describes his visits to typical schools in affluent communities.

He advocates alternative assessments, such as:

1. The PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment), which includes a test of problem-solving skills in making decisions under constraints, evaluating and designing systems for a particular situation, and trouble-shooting a malfunctioning device or system based on a set of symptoms, and
2. The Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA), an open-ended, ninety-minute “performance assessment” in which students have to demonstrate their reasoning, problem-solving, and writing skills while attempting to solve a “real-world” problem.

He puts forth a list of essential questions that I will list in my next post and begin to address in future posts.