A Teacher's Journal 32: John Stossel's "Stupid in America"

I was immediately jarred by title of the piece -- "Stupid in America: How We are Cheating our Kids." While derogatory headlines seem to be increasingly common in news coverage about education (shock value does sell, after all), this title seemed like an emotionally loaded phrase, elevating the level of criticism to an entirely new level.

And this piece lived up to its headline! In one segment, host John Stossel administered a test to two classes of high school students -- one in Belgium and one in the United States. As expected on a program titled "Stupid in America," the Belgian students easily outperformed the American students.

To everyone interviewed by Stossel, this was proof positive that American schools are failing students. "I'm shocked, because it just shows how advanced they are compared to us," said one American high school student. A Belgian student was more abrupt: "If the kids in America couldn't do this, then they must be really stupid." And a choir of parents chimed in with "It's a joke…It's insane…they're not learning anything."

The piece was oddly fascinating to me. You see, I'm a pretty open minded guy who is incredibly interested in finding ways to improve our schools, so I scoured Stossel's piece looking for conclusions that we could draw from his experiment. "What," I wondered, "did he learn about education in Belgium that we could borrow? How can we best improve our schools?"

His conclusion: America's public school system is a failure because it is a monopoly. Lack of school choice breeds mediocrity, and that mediocrity is what is failing our students. In Belgium, he explained, parents act more like "clients," carefully selecting schools for their children. Principals work diligently to impress parents and to improve their program -- otherwise their schools close.

Stossel's solution was simple: Break the government monopoly on schools by allowing families to choose the schools that they send their students to. The resulting competition will lead to an improvement in performance for every child.

Now, I've been around long enough to be leery of anyone who proposes one "quick fix" solution to any problem as complex as educating the 54 million children from diverse backgrounds and personal circumstances who attend public schools in our country each day. While it is comforting to believe that there is a "silver bullet" just waiting to be discovered, most countries that successfully educate their children take a series of interrelated actions addressing variety of factors influencing student achievement.

So besides school choice, what else does Belgium do to make its schools successful?

Stossel didn't say, so I went looking. What I found in several papers on schooling in Belgium released by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and Ministry of the Flemish Community's Education Department was rather interesting. Perhaps these four school-related factors also influence student success rates in Belgium -- and hold promise for America:

1. Students entering high school can choose from four different secondary school curriculums: School choice in Belgium means far more than simply guaranteeing that children can attend any public school within a reasonable distance of their home. Families can also choose from four different secondary school curriculums when their children turn 13, helping to shape their future career paths.

   The course of study that seemed most similar to a traditional US high school curriculum is known as a General Secondary Education. This curriculum prepares students for a university education by examining subjects at a theoretical level. Unlike American high schools, less than half (39%)of Belgian students enroll in these programs -- which may explain why the students in Stossel's experiment were so successful.

   The other 60% of Belgian secondary school students -- who may or may not be motivated by pursuing a university degree -- attend schools that offer technical, vocational and artistic courses of study. Students can study a variety of subjects from electronics and mechanics to accounting, construction, agronomics, food sciences and tourism.

   When students complete technical, vocational or artistic programs, they receive a diploma that certifies them for employment in their field of study. Some enter the workforce immediately, while others choose to move on to higher levels of theoretical study in their chosen field. By providing these options for high school students, Belgians are allowing children to pursue education and training that appeals to their interests and abilities.

   Perhaps developing a variety of high school curriculums would allow us to better serve groups of students that are struggling with the traditional high school programs offered in America.

2. Students who have "learning difficulties due to their social background and situation" receive support from Pupil Guidance Centers: There is little doubt that a family's economic background can influence student success. Quite simply, children of poverty face a set of educational barriers that children of wealth do not.

   To address these inequities, Belgium has created Pupil Guidance Centers that are free of charge and available to any student upon request by parents. These centers teach students important study skills and focus on the social and emotional development of children. They also assist families with preventative health care issues that may otherwise be neglected, positively impacting student attendance and achievement.

   Perhaps developing a similar system of guidance centers would help American schools to better meet the needs of children who struggle because of family circumstance and poverty.

3. Student/teacher ratios in secondary schools are small: Most teachers will tell you that smaller class sizes are critical to meeting the needs of all students. In Belgian secondary schools, the average is one teacher for every 9.8 students. This ratio is even lower than the student/teacher ratio in Belgian primary schools (1:20) -- and, interestingly enough, wasn't mentioned in the 20/20 segment Friday night.

   The Belgians have decided to invest significant resources into ensuring that secondary students attempting to master difficult concepts have the attention and support that they deserve. Perhaps we should rethink student/teacher ratios in American high schools as well.

4. Teacher/student contact hours are low: One way to measure demands on teachers is to analyze the number of hours spent in front of students. In the United States, the average primary school teacher spends 958 hours teaching during the course of a year. In Belgium, primary school teachers spend 832 hours a year with students. Secondary school teachers, responsible for 680 hours of instruction each year, have an even lighter workload.

   Reducing contact hours serves two purposes. First, it makes the teaching profession more appealing to college graduates. Second, it provides teachers with time built into their workday to accomplish school related tasks and to pursue professional growth, improving their effectiveness. Perhaps reducing the number of hours that American teachers spend with students would help our schools attract and retain more accomplished candidates to our classrooms.

In the end, I'm glad I watched Stossel's piece. It motivated me to spend some time looking carefully at a country that is succeeding with students. What worries me, however, is that wasn't the original intent of his work. Instead, his goal was to appeal to viewers with a shocking title and a message of fear and failure that has become all too common in reporting on education in America.

I wonder what impact this kind of emotionally charged reporting has on our efforts to improve schooling in America? Are accomplished college graduates chased away from education as a career because of the constant criticism? Do existing teachers leave classrooms out of frustration with negativity?

Have parents and communities lost faith in the purpose and plan of public education?

Are people saturated in stories like "Stupid in America" starting to believe that our schools are simply beyond repair?

How can we change their minds?