The Global Achievement Gap: Why Even Our Best Schools Don't Teach the New Survival Skills Our Children Need--and What We Can Do About It [Paperback]

Tony Wagner (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 6, 2010

In The Global Achievement Gap, education expert Tony Wagner situates our school problems in the larger context of the demands of the global knowledge economy. With insights gained from visits to classrooms in leading suburban schools, he analyzes performance by considering the skills needed to get a good job and become a productive citizen. Highlighting discussions with young people and the adults who work with them, Wagner also explains the ways in which today’s generation is differently motivated to excel.

A manifesto for the twenty-first century, The Global Achievement Gap is a must-read for anyone interested in seeing our young people achieve their full potential.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Wagner, a Harvard education professor, begins by offering his astute assessment of secondary education in the U.S. today and how it fails to produce graduates who are “jury ready” (i.e., able to analyze an argument, weigh evidence, and detect bias). He then presents a concise manifesto for the steps needed to “reinvent the education profession.” His thesis revolves around “Seven Survival skills”—the core competencies he deems necessary for success both in college and in the twenty-first-century workforce. These encompass problem solving and critical thinking, collaboration across networks, adaptability, initiative, effective oral and written communication, analyzing information, and developing curiosity and imagination. Wagner visits a wide spectrum of schools, both public and private, meets with teachers and administrators, and demonstrates how these survival skills have been forgotten in the preparation for mandatory tests. He stresses the importance of being able to analyze new information and apply it to new situations in the “global knowledge economy,” then details the programs, including team teaching, at a few innovative schools that are effectively meeting this challenge. --Deborah Donovan --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

""The Global Achievement Gap" is thoughtful and inspirational. It describes how, in these changing times, schools too must change if the US is to remain a strong economic and intellectual leader in the world, and it offers creative solutions and examples of success. This book will capture your head, your heart and, I hope, your future actions. This is a VERY important book for anyone who cares about preparing young people for success in a rapidly changing global society. Every school board member, administrator, teacher and parent in the nation should read this book."--Anne L. Bryant, Executive Director, National School Boards Association

"Tony Wagner is not just talking about our schools here--he is talking about the future our nation. "The Global Achievement Gap" cuts through the complexity and partisan posing so often associated with this genre. It is a powerful call to action, and a roadmap of how to fundamentally rethink the education of our children. If we ignore it, we do so at great peril."--Keith R. McFarland, author of #1 "Wall Street Journal" and "New York Times" Bestseller, The "Breakthrough Company: How Everyday Companies Become Extraordinary Performers"

"Kudos to Tony Wagner....Many people have been cursing the darkness of our education system, but by breaking down the many dilemmas that students, teachers and parents face as well as examining different approaches that have been successful, Wagner lights a candle for those who want to help, but don't know where to start. Whether we can transition through these exciting and perilous times will depend upon the culture we leave our young people. Tony Wagner has provided a map."--John Abele, Founding Chairman, BostonScientific, Board Chair, FIRST

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 344 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books; First Trade Paper Edition edition (April 6, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0465002307
• ISBN-13: 978-0465002306
• Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 0.9 x 9.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (48 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #12,242 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #18 in Books > Education & Reference > Schools & Teaching > Education Theory > Administration
  • #29 in Books > Education & Reference > Schools & Teaching > Education Theory > Reform & Policy
  • #32 in Books > Education & Reference > Schools & Teaching > Parent Participation

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

67 of 68 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Overview of How Schools are Stuck in the Past January 7, 2009

By Bryan Long

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Wagner argues that the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act, which attempts to close the achievement gap between our best and worst schools, has instead left us with schools that are less effective than ever in preparing our children for college, work and life. Our schools are still mired in educational content and methods from the industrial age; our children get more of the skills they really need outside of school, from extracurricular activities, personal exploration and social networking, if they are fortunate enough to have those opportunities.

Today's corporate work environment consists of clusters of business expertise distributed globally and connected via high-speed communications links. Workers collaborate in their local team and with other teams around the world to define and solve open-ended problems. In today's fast-changing, complex environment, teams are given broad objectives and asked to find the best way to achieve them. There are no pre-defined "right answers" in the business world, only profitable and unprofitable strategies. Similarly, there are seldom any "right answers" in politics, or healthcare, or any other aspect of society - including education. As adults, we have learned that history is always a selective interpretation of past events, and that the most effective communicators often break the established conventions. Yet in our schools we drill on facts and basic skills, and seldom encourage or even tolerate questioning, innovation, exploration, or collaboration....

Wagner presents seven "survival skills" that students should be learning in school in order to prepare for college and adult life:

* Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
* Collaboration Across Networks and Leading by Influence
* Agility and Adaptability
* Initiative and Entrepreneurialism
* Effective Oral and Written Communication.
* Accessing and Analyzing Information
* Curiosity and Imagination

Yet, according to a NIH study published in Science (2007), 5th-graders in middle-class public schools across the United States spent 90% of their time in their seats listening to the teacher or working alone, and only 7% of their time working in groups. Further, the average 5th grader received 5 times as much instruction in rote learning than they received instruction focused on problem solving or reasoning.

The US high school graduation rate is only 70%, and 40% of all students who enter college must take remedial courses. It is estimated that 50% of students starting college never complete a college degree. Wagner's interviews with students and professors suggest that what is missing is not content knowledge, but competencies. In core classes and even in AP courses, students are drilled in specific content and vocabulary necessary to pass standardized tests, rather than trained in open-ended inquiry, assessment, reasoning, collaboration and presentation.

Wagner takes us beyond the usual complaints about tenure and unions to examine disfunctional structural components of the educational system. In general, degree programs for teaching and school administration suffer the same flaw of content over competencies. Once they graduate, teachers are seldom given more than checklist evaluations, and rarely sit in on one another's classrooms or collaborate for instructional improvement. Instead, Wagner suggests, most teachers have little recourse other than to re-discover effective teaching on their own, in a hit-or-miss manner. As a consequence, not only are best practices not promulgated, but there is little consensus among teachers about what constitutes good teaching.

Wagner also looks at the problem of how our current teaching practices fail to engage and motivate students. Outside of school, our children have team sports and group activities, and are immersed in the Internet world of interactivity, social networking, and visual information access. Despite legitimate concerns about addictive behavior, violent content and cyber-bullying, Wagner points out that our kids online experience, including even gaming, is much more relevant to the kind of activity found in most information-intensive careers. Our children want group connections, open-ended exploration, immediate feedback response, and relevance. Multi-tasking, search, and filtering are natural tasks to them, while they have little patience for long, linear, non-visual texts.

Our schools offer students little of what engages them. Instead of group activity, they get one-way lectures and individual worksheets. Instead of open-ended exploration, they get drills and tests. Instead of rich interactive, multimedia information, they get dry textbooks. Wagner argues that most high-school school drop-outs occur not because the student lacks ability, but because they lack motivation. School does not engage them, and they correctly perceive a lack of relevancy to their current and future lives.

Finally, Wagner offers us some profiles of a few schools that are "doing it right". While it is wonderful to see such examples, they are all small schools. It is probably not feasible nor desirable to open hundreds of thousands of new schools in every neighborhood, and Wagner doesn't offer much perspective on how we can translate these examples to the large schools that make up most of our national school system. But perhaps it is better if we all collaborate on solving that problem! I highly recommend this book by Tony Wagner as a starting point. Read more ›

35 of 35 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Skills for everyone to learn and ways to teach them December 2, 2008

By Lori

Format:Hardcover

I graduated as a valedictorian from a high school that is not known for its academic excellence. I did not feel much pride in my achievement - though I know I should have because it indicates I worked hard in school. I was lucky and had quite a few great teachers that did try to teach me to think -- not just memorize stuff. However, I had many more teachers that I could describe much less enthusiastically. I was valedictorian though and took and passed several AP classes too. But I did horribly when I got to college because of the poor preparation I was given in high school. The skills I needed to get that valedictorian status was not enough for even a 3.0 average my first semester of college.

The Global Achievement Gapdoes a great job of discussing how we need to change schools today so that the students are better prepared for college and work - not just to pass tests. He discusses how teachers should use content to teach kids to think - and not making the content the goal. He discusses different ways students can be taught to speak and think for themselves, to be able to question things around them and be able to solve problems on their own. While reading this book, I kept thinking about how *I* could have benefited from these had I had an education like he described. However, as an adult looking at the big picture, I have a hard time believing that such a big change to cover *everything* he describes is realistically feasible in our world. Maybe we can take small steps toward that goal but the changes he described for the schools and the teaching education and profession are huge and require significantly more money. It will also require changes to current political system in place for schools....

The most useful purpose of this book is for parents and teachers to think about how they might start making changes in the way they are educating the students today so that students today can start reaping the benefits of an education that will prepare them properly for their future. The survival skills Mr. Wagner describes are definitely important and can be taught in every home and every classroom. Read more ›

36 of 41 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Beyond "test-prep" and towards "life-prep" September 9, 2008

By Tan Huynh

Format:Hardcover

Finally a text that outlines school reform without the need of an masters degree to access it. Wanger recommends that schools focus on teaching mental processes by teaching content rather than making content the end goal. The need to develop competencies will prepare our students for a global economy where they will compete with students in and outside the US.

All teachers, administrators, school boards, universities with teacher certification programs, parents, business owners, community leaders, and policy makers who are frustrated but optimistic about school reform should invest time to read this book because it lays out causes of the global achievement gap, identifies core competencies, and highlight schools that serve as models for an achievable school reform.

In addition to the large implications this book might have for the education world, it is valuable for helping me transform my approach to teaching.

84 of 105 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Some heat, no light March 13, 2009

By R. M. Smith

Format:Hardcover

I wanted to like this book and while Dr. Wagner made some good points, especially about the shortcomings of typical student assessments, these strengths could not overcome the books many weaknesses. For instance, the gathering of opinions about what students should learn in school, passed off as "research," and then coverted into the hopelessly vague "Seven Survival Skills for Teens Today" reveals a biased methodology that undermines the work's credibility.

Furthermore, the "Seven Survival Skills" continue the recent trend of suggesting that the goals of education are simply generic process skills. While I have my issues with E.D. Hirsch's work, I do agree with him that education is not content free and that any claims to the contrary are misguided. (By the way, if you read the list of seven skills closely, it becomes apparent that more like a dozen process skills are seen as essential - one of Dr. Wagner's editors must have decided that seven was more marketable and combined similar, but not identical learning domains to reach the marketing target.)

Dr. Wagner's discussion of improving the education profession also fell short. He continues to perpetuate the insular view that there is something unique about working in schools compared with all other lines of professional work. There is not. Workplace contingencies are basically the same everywhere and in every profession. What matters is arranging the contingencies of work to get high performance. He does not enlighten us on that point.

The book fails us again when Dr. Wagner presents his examples of exemplary schools that work.... The schools he cites may, in fact, be very good schools but they are not replicable on a large scale and their methods do not translate to the large school settings common across the United States. What we need is guidance on how to make the schools we have as good as they can be, not admonitions to make schools that can not be.

I could go on, but you get the point. Dr. Wagner is firmly rooted in the current fashion of educational romaticism that grips our national reform debate. He offers yet another unrealistic model for educational reform based on faulty assumptions. If you are looking for insight into useful school reforms, I suggest you look elsewhere. Read more ›