Best Schools In the World

Pockets of excellence education off the world such as New Zealand in reading, the Netherlands in math and foreign languages, Japan in science, Germany in high-school education and teacher training, and Sweden in adult education. Americans have the most successful system of higher education, especially postgraduate programs; the California Institute of Technology represents the best of that tradition. In a few cases, we chose cities that are in the forefront of innovation. For preschools, we picked Reggio Emilia, in Italy's Emilia-Romagna region, as an example of a grass-roots project that has become an international role model. In the arts, we focused on Pittsburgh, which is using the ideas of Harvard University psychologist Howard Gardner to foster creativity and critical thinking skills. This is an optimistic story, for it demonstrates what nations can accomplish when they have the will. After World War II, Japan, Germany and the Netherlands rebuilt their school systems as they rebuilt their countries--often using American educational research. Today, students in those countries lead the world in advanced math, science and other technical subjects. During the same period, Americans turned into a nation of pedagogical groupies, following first one trend and then another without any sustained attempt to develop a coherent curriculum. Open classrooms were the rage in the 1960s and '70s, followed by back to basics in the '80s. The newest panacea is giving parents public money--usually in the form of vouchers-to choose their schools.

Consistency is a key to excellence overseas. Most industrialized countries have a national curriculum. Teachers get specific instructions. Our educational system has always reflected the American credo of independence. "We have so much autonomy," says University of Illinois professor Herbert Walberg, an expert on Asian schools. "Everyone does their own thing, to the point where a fifth-grade teacher can't count on a fourth-grade teacher having taught certain things." Compared with youngsters overseas, American kids are long on leisure and short on learning. Japan's school year runs 240 days and Germany's 210. But most American kids are in class 180 days, with a long summer vacation. That's a holdover from the days when youngsters were needed to help on the farm. Dozens of American districts have begun trying to make their calendars reflect 1991 reality. In California, for example, 20 percent of the state's 5 million students are on an extended schedule, with long periods of school followed by shorter vacations.

Throwing piles of money into schools isn't necessarily the answer. Japan spends about 50 percent less per student than we do, and Japanese students consistently rank higher. In another measure of spending, the percentage of gross national product devoted to education, the United States is about average. Experts in international education say it's not the amount of money but the way it's spent that matters. We tend to spend more on buildings and administration and have relatively low teacher salaries. Other countries, especially Japan and Germany, spend more on teacher salaries and have modest buildings and fewer administrators. Not everything that works overseas can be successfully transplanted. Japan's schools, for example, don't have to worry about educating an ethnically diverse or domestically troubled population. By contrast, Europeans share some of our social problems--a high divorce rate, a growing immigrant population--but few European nations even attempt to offer equal educational opportunity to all. "When it comes to equal opportunity, we have the best hearts," says former education secretary William Bennett. "The problem is our education system doesn't produce the best minds.