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
Credits
Soundtrack by Podington Bear
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