Envy of The World? More Thoughts
Posted: December 21st, 2012 | Author: Michael Goldstein | | 3 Comments »
I came across this graph. It shows what Americans spend on higher ed, versus what happens in other countries.
Reminds me of health care. There too we spend more than any other nation. Our best medical care beats anyone else’s best medical care. That’s why the rich come here for treatment. Our average result, though, is not impressive.
My friend Ed Liu of Boston Teacher Residency said it well in the comments section here the other day:
Having worked in nonprofits, K-12, and higher ed, I agree with Dai 100 percent. The claim that our higher ed institutions are the envy of the world really is based on the success of top research universities and colleges — the top 5 percent.
But if you take a broader perspective and consider whether we have a post-secondary system that succeeds at mass education — equipping adults for middle class jobs and the demands of active citizenship — I would argue that we don’t have a world class system.
Also, in recent years, there has been a homogenization in higher ed, even as what have traditionally been teaching institutions try to rise up in prestige by mimicking research universities and raising publishing requirements for faculty. This has led to a poor allocation of resources. Professors are working on research of not high quality (pursuit of tenure) and flooding journals with articles. This does not advance the knowledge base in deep ways.
This energy would be better used, I think, in improving teaching or partnering with societal institutions (like schools) to solve problems.
I’d never seen this graph before — really striking how similar it looks to health, huh? Thanks for sharing. I’m going to try to blog about this over the next few days.
In both health care and education, the cause is structural. While there are a lot of differences — higher ed is capitated, health care isn’t; no equivalent to provider-driven demand in higher ed ; etc.– what both share is a decentralized/competitive delivery system with a near-total lack of transparency and accountability around outcomes.
The government needs to step up and create a marketplace that ties public and private $ to performance. It can invest in research and information transparency at a minimum. It can regulate. And ideally, it would use its buying power (via Medicare/aid in healthcare, Fed financial aid in higher ed) more aggressively to pay for performance. With the expansion of accountable care models under Obamacare & state government initiatives (eg, MA & AK) health care is actually moving in this direction more quickly. Hopefully Arne will push this harder on the higher ed side. In the meantime, disruptive innovators will have to carry the load.
John Danner had a good post along similar lines recently – ‘Health Care is Already Blended’ – at bit.ly/YuIo0r
Also, recently read ‘The Innovative University’ which does a good job of explaining the path-dependent way in which our higher ed system got in this mess.
Really interesting. Bummer Finland isn’t labeled here–check this out for some really interesting work on what makes Finland’s schools tick: http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/12/what-americans-keep-ignoring-about-finlands-school-success/250564/#%2ETwc4z6oco8k%2Eemail
Mentions (anecdotally) the lack of a correlation between population diversity and educational outcomes, as well as highlighting the similarities as well as the differences between Finland and the US. I’d love to see some data on national diversity vs educational outcomes.
Fun tidbits from above: Finland reformed its schools with the conscious goal of getting students ready for higher education in a knowledge based economy, Finland’s goal was equity and not excellence. There aren’t private schools or schools of choice to speak of in Finland.
From my impression (still need to learn) the lessons are mixed. I’ve seen a lot of anti-choice people write about Finland’s lessons for America but it seems to me that there are pluses and deltas for both sides. d
Must-read NYT article today on college completion gap: http://nyti.ms/UnSw8l
Blogged it here: mindoverminerals.com/2012/12/23/getting-off-the-island/