A bit of irony disguised as a riddle
The 5 best countries for education: Number one is the U.S. with its foundational K-12 system that prepares young people for higher education.
And yet the other countries are aware that the U.S. openly reports that 50% of its high school graduates cannot read, write, or do math at minimum NAEP proficiency.
https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/best-countries-for-education
United States #1 in Education Rankings No Change in Rank from 2023
Per the U.S. News and World Report, “It’s also worthwhile to note that while the Best Countries study is certainly respectable, other studies use different methodologies or emphasize different criteria, which often leads to different results. For example, the Global Citizens for Human Rights’ annual study measures ten levels of education from early childhood enrollment rates to adult literacy.”
NOTE: THE 501(C)(3) HSE4METRICS IS NOT A SCHOOL AND IS FULLY INDEPENDENT FROM SCHOOLS AND SCHOOL SYSTEMS, WHETHER PUBLIC OR PRIVATE, AND REGARDLESS OF SUCH CATEGORIES AS MICROSCHOOL, PAROCHIAL SCHOOL, AND GOVERNOR’S SCHOOL.
World Population Overview
https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/education-rankings-by-country
Education Rankings by Country 2024: United States #1, United Kingdom #2, Germany #3, Canada #4, France #5, Switzerland #6, Japan #7, Australia #8, Sweden #9, Netherlands #10.
In sum, families from around the world move to the U.S. for higher education and its foundation K-12 public education component. They ARE AWARE of NAEP data. They ARE AWARE of international rankings such as PISA and TIMSS that rank U.S. K-12 results far below the other industrialized nations.
So, isn't it contradictory and confusing that families would move to the U.S. for higher education and its foundational public K-12 system?
DOESN’T THE WORLD BELIEVE THE REPORTS?
Or does the world believe the reports but conclude something else:
FIRST, those families may reason that disgraceful PISA, TIMSS, and NAEP results are not the fault of the U.S. public K-12 education system. After all, even within the same community there may be a school that excels nationally and another that is one of the nation’s worst NAEP performers. The point here: The school system is the same for both.
SECOND, hard for families in other countries to overlook is that the U.S. K-12 public education system is foundational to U.S. higher education which produces the most Nobel Prize winners in the world, the best technologists, and on and on.
THIRD (for this one, let’s use our imaginations for a moment): If the U.S. K-12 system were somehow (magically) exported to countries that rank far above the U.S. on international K-12 tests, the superior education results of students in those countries might remain the same or might climb higher than before. On the other hand, if the K-12 education systems in those countries were applied in the United States, those systems might quickly collapse. Remember, the K-12 system in the U.S. is massive, the geographic territory it covers is massive, the U.S. culture is not monolithic, the U.S. includes everyone from every background, and the U.S. does not filter.
What not to do: DO NOT rashly remake the U.S. K-12 system, impose on it such programs as No Child Left Behind, or impulsively add to the burden of teachers.
Rather, the challenge is to have our nation's astounding public K-12 system work brilliantly for EVERY YOUNG PERSON.
Beginning with pre-K-12 young people (and kids years before kindergarten), indispensable is to maximize the nation’s capitalization rate (see Malcolm Gladwell’s cap rate insights).
Required to find a way for our nation’s K-12 public education system to work brilliantly for every young person is true innovation. Jamie Dimon explains the societal need for what he describes as societal innovation for societal-good and the need to take the risk to test that innovation. He urges his fellow corporate leaders to have the resolve to innovate (or shepherd an existing innovation, and implement (test) it.
AN EXISTING INNOVATION OPPORTUNITY: the free-access 501(c)(3) HSe4Metrics social media app.