Marc Tucker speaking at the 2012 Southern Growth Policies Conference

Marc Tucker recently travelled to Chattanooga, TN to participate in the Southern Growth Policies Conference hosted by Governor Bill Haslam.  News Channel Nine covered the event and reported on some of the pertinent workforce issues in the region. An op-ed in the State Journal (WV), reviews NCEE’s latest book, reasoning “Shanghai may have the right idea when it comes to training teachers.” In his blog in Education Week, Marc Tucker questions whether differentiated learning is really a solution to the school finance crisis, explains why STEM does not make sense, and discusses the presidential candidates’ education agendas.

Tony Mackay, Executive Director of the Centre for Strategic Education

This month, the International Advisory Board welcomed Tony Mackay as their newest member. Mackay is the Executive Director of the Centre for Strategic Education, Melbourne, Australia and Deputy Chair of Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA). He also holds the title of Chair of the recently announced Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership; immediate Past President of the Australian Curriculum Studies Association; Board Director of the Australian Council for Educational Research; Board Member of the University of Melbourne, Graduate School of Education; and Australian College of Educators 2006 medallist.

On May 11, Jane Williams of Bloomberg Radio interviewed Dean of the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University Mari Koerner, NCEE President Marc Tucker, and President of the AFT Randi Weingarten about improving teacher training and pay.  In a special report in this month’s Washington Monthly, editor in chief Paul Glastris talks with Tucker, Robert Schwartz of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and Susan Traiman, former director of public policy at the Business Roundtable, about why CEOs’ interest and engagement in school reform has waned over the past decade. The Philadelphia Inquirer interviews Tucker about Surpassing Shanghai and teacher quality. In a recent op-ed in the Atlantic, Tucker argues that the problems with our nation’s healthcare system are very similar to the challenges facing our national education system.

Also in the Atlantic, Michael Fullan, professor emeritus at the Ontario Institutes for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto and member of the CIEB Advisory Board, explains what the United States can learn from Ontario about education. And on a spin on the same topic, in a guest blog post for the Washington Post’s Answer Sheet, Pasi Sahlberg, director general of Finland’s Centre for International Mobility and Cooperation and member of the CIEB Advisory Board, explains what the United States can’t learn from Finland about education.

Steve Hargadon of the Future of Education recently interviewed Tucker on the shared strategies used by the top-performing education systems and Emily Richmond, of the Education Writers Association, chatted with Tucker about why United States fares so poorly on international comparisons, how fundamental changes are needed in how society views and treats teachers, and why there doesn’t have to be a choice between equity and quality when it comes to public schools. In his Education Week blog, Top Performers, Tucker challenges the new generation of business leaders to turn their talents and influence to systems-change so that U.S. students can perform at world-class levels.

Marc Tucker at GSEHD Event

NCEE in the News
In the The Philadelphia Tribune, Marc Tucker talks about practical steps for bringing the United States in line with the world’s leading education systems. In a guest blog for the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, Marc Tucker responds to Mike Petrilli’s argument that Asian countries looking to find the source of U.S. innovation should look outside American classrooms.  In his Education Week blog, Top Performers, Marc Tucker reviews the latest report from the Council on Foreign Relations, writes about borrowing best practices and even better policies, explains how governance is a central issue in improving student performance and questions if the nation’s schools and the public are best served by a system in which curriculum materials are available for free from public web sites.

On January 19, 2012, the National Center on Education and the Economy launched the Center on International Education Benchmarking (CIEB). The new Center will conduct research on the world’s most successful education systems.  It will also offer access to information, analysis, and opinion on the education systems of the top-performing countries from all over the world through its new web portal. Click here to find out more.

In August 2011, Emily Wicken joined NCEE as a research analyst. Emily recently completed a PhD in History from Brown University, following a BA in History from Carleton College in Northfield, MN, where she also completed coursework in Education Studies. Her doctoral dissertation focused on the treatment of criminals in the West Indies, Ireland and India in the 1790s and required a year of independent research in UK archives.

In the Fall of 2011, Wanying Wang joined NCEE as a visiting scholar. Wanying recently completed a PhD in Education from the University of Hong Kong where her studies focused on a curriculum innovation in Peking University in Mainland China; the university is committed to modeling the core curriculum at Harvard University.  She holds a master’s degree in education and a bachelor’s degree in law.

Latest Publications and Events

Surpassing Shanghai: An Agenda for American Education Built on the World’s Leading Systems

On November 10, Harvard Education Press released NCEE’s latest book, Surpassing Shanghai: An Agenda for American Education Built on the World’s Leading Systems. The book, edited by NCEE President Marc Tucker (with a forward by Linda Darling-Hammond), focuses on five countries that have sustained records of superior education performance including Canada (with a focus on Ontario), China (with a focus on Shanghai), Japan, Finland, and Singapore. The authors describe each country’s history, culture, and education system in terms of standards, instructional systems, assessments, teacher quality, school finance, the gateways through the system, and the incentives that affect student motivation. In the final chapter, the book offers recommendations for how the United States can catch up and even outpace these educational leaders. Purchase a copy of the book here.

To celebrate the release of Surpassing Shanghai, NCEE hosted a book signing and briefing on November 15 with Marc Tucker and New York Times columnist and Pulitzer Prize winning-author Thomas Friedman, who co-authored the book, That Used To Be Us: How America Fell Behind In the World It Invented and How We Can Come Back. The discussion was moderated by NBC correspondent Luke Russert. Video from the event is now available on NCEE’s web site.

NCEE in the News

Dan Rather Reports

On January 12, Marc Tucker participated in Education Week’s Quality Counts event and joined Mary Jean Gallagher, Deputy Assistant Minister at the Ontario Ministry of Education; Anthony Jackson, Vice President for Education at the Asia Society; and Emiliana Vegas, Lead Education Economist at the World Bank for a policy roundtable discussion entitled the Global Challenge. In November 2011, Marc kicked off his new blog, Top Performers, hosted by Education Week. He will be blogging at least once a week on what we can learn from the nations leading the world in student achievement and how those lessons can help shape U.S. policy and practice.  Marc also blogs occasionally for National Journal’s Education Expert blog—check out his latest post on why charter schools should not be driving national education policy.  Last November, Marc also wrote a commentary for Education Next entitled, “A Different Role for Teacher Unions” and appeared on Dan Rather Reports to discuss why the United States has fallen so far behind its international peers in terms of student achievement. Watch part of the interview here or to view the full show, Take a Lesson from Singapore, visit iTunes.