Wagner, Tony. (2008). The Global Achievement Gap. Reviewed by Brenda L. H. Marina & Hsiu-Lien Lu, Georgia Southern University

Wagner, Tony. (2008). The Global Achievement Gap. New York, NY., Basic Books Pp. xxviii + 290         ISBN 978-465-00229-0 Reviewed by Brenda L. H. Marina & Hsiu-Lien Lu Georgia Southern University April 15, 2009 The Global Achievement Gap was published by Basic Books, a Member of the Perseus Book Group in New York in 2008. It was written by Tony Wagner, a co-director of the Change Leadership Group (CLG) at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He consults to schools, districts, and foundations and served as Senior Advisor to the Bill &Melinda Gates Foundation. The catcher on the book cover uses an inquiry subtitle with an assured resolution: why even our best schools don’t teach the new survival skills our children need – and what we can do about it. This gives the audience a sense that this book probably will give the answers to the global achievement gap. Additionally, the illustration depicts the gap by exhibiting two rows of two chairs and desks, symbolizing the old school of learning that generates the global achievement gap and hinting that something needs to be changed so as to catch up. The price of the book is $26.95 for US dollars and $28.95 for Canadian dollars. However, US corporations, institutions, and other organizations can get the book at special discounts for bulk purchases. Wagner hopes to help readers from all walks of life to better understand the educational obstacles to change and comes up with a set of seven survival strategies to overcome the obstacles. Along the book he uses examples from his consulting experiences and shares what he has learned from the experiences with audience. The author, based on his experience of working with, observing, interviewing with high school teachers, believes that the global achievement gap is being created during secondary school education as generally high school educators do not have a sense of urgency of change because they are being busy attempting to increase the number of standardized tests and lose vision for change. The book is written from the point of view of a Harvard university professor who has had years of experiences working with school development and improvement. The writer uses some statistical facts regarding the high school education, college education, job markets, and citizenship performance face America to introduce the issue of the global achievement gap. He uses examples of facts observed in the classroom to explain and convince the reader that the seven survival skills are lacking in the classroom. Wagner also uses examples of interviews with representatives from the new world of work and examples of classroom walks to allow readers to draw their conclusion. The intended audience of this book is for leaders from all walks of life – business, community, and political leaders as well as parents and educators who lead the way. The writing style of this book is very fluid, clear, coherent, and original. It has a full development of what the problem is about and provides strategies of resolving the problem. The book starts by disclosing the author’s realizing the existence of the hidden global achievement gap, the second achievement gap in USA. Wagner contends that while America has been coping with the first achievement gap by using standardized tests to bring the poor and minority students up to where the middle-class students are, what is teaching in public schools has created the gap for what is needed to succeed in today’s world, as lifelong learners and active citizenship. His own observations and conversations with representatives from the new world of work stirs Wagner to the unveil and call attention to seven survival skills for the twenty-first century The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act deals with the first and obvious domestic achievement gap between urban and suburban/poor and affluent. Wagner began to realize that there might be a global achievement gap, when he conducted learning walks in 18 classes with a group of officers from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on visits to several “early college” programs funded by the Foundation. The purpose of the learning walks was to determine what rigor should look like in classrooms and to assess the progress their grantees were making as they tried to ensure that all students were college-ready. Chapter one explains how the world of work is changing by reviewing the conversations with representatives from what Wagner calls “the new world of work”. He explains how America has been striving to close a domestic achievement gap through mediocre teaching, testing and accountability with the NCLB Act, while at the same time a global achievement gap is widening. He leads us into the next chapter with the contention that even students in good schools are not learning the skills that are imperative for the twenty-first century. In chapter two, Wagner presents cases of learning walks in what he calls “old world of schools”, which include two prestigious high schools and several army schools. Wagner finds that most educators are attempting to pursue rigorous teaching and learning; however, they don’t have clear definition of what rigor means in teaching. Through this experience, the hidden gap is exposed to Wagner. He then has the audience take a glimpse at the competition in other countries, such as India, China and Singapore. Wagner presents observations in public schools and allows the reader to see what is happening in the school. He explained why he chose to observe high school classrooms; he believes that high school students are more mature to learn critical thinking skills and they begin to understand what skills they need to succeed in careers and college. Wagner provided statistical facts to demonstrate that elementary schools mostly increase time teaching tested content and skills and decrease time for other subjects as schools want to ensure that they are not shamed with the brand of “needs improvement”. Through examples and personal professional development experiences, the author explained what he believes is wrong with the ways educators are prepared for their profession and how their work is structured. It was suggested that teacher preparation programs and certification programs for administrators do not focus on developing the skills needed to be an effective teacher or a change leader/administrator. Chapter three examines the current accountability system in the nation and concluded with the following points that suggest that schools have not prepared students to be college and citizenship ready: Standardized tests are shaped by outdated notions of academic rigor and by political and financial considerations. Rigor has long been defined as having the right answers to academic content, but the rigor that matters most for the 21st century and for the world of work, learning and citizenship is the ability to ask the right questions and to problem solve. It doesn’t matter how much you know but how much you can do with what you know. The goals from the “old world of schools” has had a negative impact on students’ motivation in learning. Wagner ends by suggesting a more meaningful accountability system and provides examples of assessments that are available to address the seven survival skills. In Chapter 4, Wagner describes his consultation with a group of veteran educators which depicts how teachers do not have the agreement on the assessment of an instructional tasks. He uses his personal story to shed light to the realities in the practice and preparation of the teaching profession and suggests that students take a collection of courses that are not coherent among each other for diploma or certification. Teachers and administrators are having difficulty figuring out how to get all students to be proficient and improve teaching continuously. However, teacher and administrator collaborations are increasing in the profession. Wagner provides examples of the achievement of teachers certified by National Board Certified Teachers (NBCTs) and concludes that with coherent preparation teachers can work differently. In chapter 5 is a discussion about motivating students today for the world of work tomorrow. Educators and business leaders are worried about the decline of the work ethic among young people – who are hungry for praise and impatient of promotions. A number of individuals think young people today have a different ethic. Young people growing up in the digital age have become multitasking, constantly connected, instantly gratified and expect the speed of light in things. It was suggested that in order for young students to respect learning and school, we need to ensure that learning and schoolwork is real adult work that requires both analysis and creativity. The teacher should work as a facilitator rather than an information dictator. In the workplace young people today connect in new ways. They long for meaningful work and they desire for a different kind of relationship with adults on a more equal level. They crave dignity. They try to play a new game by the old rules. They want learning to be active and self-express. They want to know why they are being asked to learn something. The chapter ends with two students describing their school experiences and what they needed to succeed. Chapter 6 gives examples of schools that are working to close the global achievement gap. These schools refuse to teach to the test and they teach hands-on and around projects-based learning. Students are required to think, plan, organize, and work in a team. The schools teach to meet the survival skills. Teachers function as coaches and facilitators and students are the workers. One particular school helps its teachers grow by offering instructional rubrics and 2-hour common planning period every day and an early release every Wednesday for 2 and a half hours a week for full faculty meeting. The examples assist the readers to understand what Wagner means about the achievement gap and how the survival skills can be applied in instruction. The book concludes with questions that parents, teachers and community leaders have asked the author which is a bonus to the understanding to the book. The book is developed in such a way that it tells stories of how the author finds a hidden global achievement gap, coming up with a set of core survival skills, disclosing problems in schools, teacher education, assessment systems, schooling goals, and ends with examples of possible solutions available. Education in the US has been dominated by the NCLB act, creating an assessment system that intends to close the achievement gap between students in middle class and poor and minority children, since the beginning of the 21st century. Unfortunately this high stakes system has overwhelmingly plagued every student and teacher in the public school system. As a result, problems in public school teaching and learning have been well discussed, complained about, and documented. The achievement gap has long been an issue of education in the Unite States and has been attended to by politicians, administrators and researchers. But perhaps, none of the attention have genuinely solved the real problem of educating all students for the 21st century. Wagner does a good job directing the reader to the attention to a global achievement gap that is impacting young generations for the new world of work, learning, and citizenship. Through Wagner’s story-telling style, using cases and examples, we were impressed by his profound insight and his patience in sharing what he has realized. This book is not forcefully attempting to persuade the reader. The light-hearted tone with sincerity has induced the reader to want to find out what has been disclosed and to examine personally whether what he says is true and what we as Americans should do to take part in closing the global achievement gap. About the Reviewers Dr. Brenda Marina is an Assistant Professor for Educational Leadership, at Georgia Southern University, in Statesboro, Georgia. Dr. Marina has worked for the past eleven years in higher education and Higher education administration. Her career as an educator includes teaching undergraduate students, graduate students and has served as an internship mentor for students pursuing Higher Education Administration degrees. Dr. Marina's research interests include: Leadership though Mentoring, Women in Leadership, Multicultural Competence in Higher Education, and Global Education Issues and Policies. She holds professional affiliations at both the state and national level. She has also served as a conference presenter for state, national, and international conferences on issues related to her research. Dr. Hsiu-Lien Lu is an Assistant Professor for Teaching and Learning at Georgia Southern University, in Statesboro, Georgia. Dr. Lu has worked in preservice and in-service teacher education for the past 8 years and her career as a teacher educator includes teaching undergraduate and graduate students. She also works as a supervisor for student teachers in the field. Prior to this she worked as teachers in k-12 schools for 16 years in Taiwan. Dr. Lu’s research interests include: teacher education, instructional strategies with technology, classroom management, assessment, and school reform. She has served as a conference presenter for state, regional, and international conferences on issues related to her research interests.