One Good Question
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One Good Question with Derwin Sisnett: Which do you Build First, Schools or Communities?
Derwin Sisnett
This post is part of a series of interviews with international educators, policy makers, and leaders titled “One Good Question.” These interviews provide answers to my One Good Question (outlined in About) and uncover new questions about education’s impact on the future.
“In what ways do our investments in education reveal our beliefs about the next generation’s role in the world?”
To me, investment is all about bringing opportunities to others that we’re given to me when I was a kid, whether it was from my parents, community members, or business folks. What I think we should bring to the table is time and thoughtfulness around this work. My work is not just about education. It is about the whole community. In the education reform movement, we’ve somehow convinced ourselves that if we overdo the classroom work, we’ll somehow address all the issues that we need to address because of kids’ “perseverance” and “resilience.” If we get that part right, the students will somehow make it out. The problem is – they make it “out” and you’ve left another void in the community. Education investment has to be more about compassion and more about giving something that actually represents a sacrifice.
“Building the infrastructure doesn’t necessarily ensure that people will take advantage of the service, that requires a shift in mentality. What you’re building in Memphis, a mixed-use development for schools, affordable housing, and performing arts center, will be a massive statement about the positive value on school and bigger community. If you build it will they come?”
I don’t believe that if you build it they will come. I believe if you build them, they will come. As much as we wanted to build the Town Center as quickly as possible, it was in our best interest to actually build the capacity of the school, families and community first. We almost had to realize this lesson over time because it took us years to raise the dollars. When we open the campus this fall, we’re literally just transferring a school from one building to the next. It’s not a difficult transaction for our organization. We’re not wondering if we’re going to meet enrollment and we’ve developed a broader facilities strategy where Power Center Elementary will move into the older campus. Therefore, it you build them, the people in your community, to a place where they see access to education as the first step to change, then they will protect and engender sustainable change for others.
“There is some discourse that high-performing schools lead to gentrified communities. How does that fit in the community development model?”
In Atlanta, I met with an African-American developer, who understands African-American community, and he gave the best analogy about mixed-income communities. He said, this is like Orbitz, you don’t know how much that person sitting next to you on the plane paid, but they got a seat on the plane. Education access should operate in the same ways to increase access for all youth. I grew up in New York where everybody paid $1.25 to get on the train. That train is accessible to everyone and eventually even Mayor Bloomberg got on that train. From millionaires to folks for whom it’s hard to get $1.25, they all understand the value of the train and it gives them access to everything. We are all on the same vehicle. That’s where we need to be with education. High quality schools represent an opportunity to eliminate gentrification. It actually can inspire diverse communities. People start to value what the school is itself and they recognize that this is not some thing for poor people or rich people, this is something for people.This is a human issue. That’s quite frankly my concern with education reform, we call it a civil rights movement, but we don’t actually have a call for humanity to this work. It’s just simply “all kids need a great education” and we don’t drill down to why. The why is because of humanity. When I think about gentrification, the reason that happens is because somehow, we believe that this “thing” is so good now, this person shouldn’t have it (anymore). We convince ourselves that we somehow earned this public good. No one in NY feels like they “earned” the A train. That’s just the vehicle to get from point A to point B. and that makes it a right.
Derwin’s One Good Question: Why do we so clearly understand the problem with Blackberry when the iPhone came out, but don’t understand the problem with ed reform? It’s so easy for us to see how Blackberry missed the mark—they couldn’t catch on to the personalized aspect of the phone. But with schools, we still think we should focus solely on schools– not community development or community revitalization. I wonder why we’re missing that mark? Do we have the wrong people asking the questions?
In 2015, Derwin Sisnett founded Maslow Development Inc. (Maslow), a nonprofit organization that develops communities around high performing schools. Prior to creating Maslow, Derwin co-founded Gestalt Community Schools (Gestalt), a charter management organization that manages the growth of high-performing, community-based charter schools in Memphis, Tennessee. Maslow was established in order to extend the community development and real estate practices that are a core part of Gestalt Community Schools’ mission to other high performing schools across the country. To date, Gestalt serves 2,300 K-12 scholars across 6 campuses in Memphis. In addition to his work at Maslow and Gestalt, Derwin serves on the Power Center CDC Board of Directors, the Crosstown Arts Board of Trustees, the Martin Institute for Teaching Excellence Board of Trustees, the Methodist Extended Care Hospital Board of Directors, and the Memphis Light, Gas & Water Board of Commissioners, where he serves as Chairman. Derwin has earned a BA in Psychology from Emory University and a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Hollins University. Derwin is also a Pahara-Aspen Fellow and a Broad Academy Fellow.
One Good Question with Fabrice Jaumont: How Parent Organizing Leads to Revolution.
Fabrice Jaumont photo credit: Jonas Cuenin
This post is part of a series of interviews with international educators, policy makers, and leaders titled “One Good Question.” These interviews provide answers to my One Good Question and uncover new questions about education’s impact on the future.
“In what ways do our investments in education reveal our beliefs about the next generation’s role in the world?”
Part of my research, and the recent book that I have published[1], focus on philanthropy and American foundations, particularly those that make financial investments in education development in Africa. I also work with philanthropists on a regular basis through my work in bilingual education in the United States. I raise funds for my programs which provide services to schools and support the needs of dual language students in various settings. Coming from France, which has a tradition of state-controlled support to education, I have always been intrigued by the U.S. philanthropic culture and tradition of “giving back to the community”, which encourages people, wealthy or not, to contribute financially or by volunteering their time and expertise. This, I find, can have a tremendous impact on children, schools, and communities. I believe it creates better chances for the next generation and help it access quality programs, equal opportunities, and the right conditions to grow and play an active role in society. I find it inspiring to see people giving money willingly – on top of the taxes they pay - to improve a city’s or the country’s education system. The fact that these individuals want to make a difference through their actions and financial contributions is a social contract that I find worthy of our attention. If done well, with the buy-in of communities, it can have an impact on hundreds of thousands of children that would not necessarily have these chances - even within the context of a strong centralized system. This tradition of giving also sends a very strong and hopeful message which is carried on from one generation to the next. As a child, you might have received support from the generosity of someone, perhaps even someone who you never met. As an adult, you might want to be that generous donor and help a child experience things that he or she couldn’t experience otherwise.
We can criticize this tradition too. In recent weeks, a lot has been said about the Gates Foundation’s failure to improve education despite its best intentions, ambitious programs, and the billions of dollars that it poured into transforming schools and educational models. One could ask why, in the first place, foundations and wealthy individuals try to change school systems. Should we not tax these individuals more so that wealth be redistributed through a more democratic process rather than an individual’s pet projects? Surely, the future of our children should not depend on the largesse of the Super Rich.
Sometimes foundations are seen as having a corrosive impact on society. In my book, I analyze these critics’ views of U.S. foundations in Africa. I also provide a new understanding of educational philanthropy by using an institutional lens that helps me avoid the traps and bias that I pinpointed in the discourse of foundation opponents. In my opinion, grantors and grantees have an unequal relationship from the start. As a result, the development agenda is either imposed by the money holders, or “adjusted to please the donor” by money seekers who just want to secure the funds or win the grant competition. To reconcile this discrepancy, I propose that philanthropists and grant recipients place their relationship on an equal footing, and engage in thorough conversations which start with the needs and seeks input from all actors. This can generate more respect and mutual understanding, and strengthen each step of the grantmaking process: from building a jointly-agreed agenda to tackling the issues more efficiently.
“Too often in public education, language immersion and international education are only offered to children from middle class environments. The community of bilingual/dual-language schools in New York make an effort to promote immersion for students from diverse backgrounds. What could that choice of intentional diversity mean for New York's future?”
In several contexts of education, immersion and international education is too often reserved for children of the affluent. The community of public bilingual schools that I have helped develop in New York and in other cities provides access to quality programs to children of diverse socio-economic and ethnic backgrounds. Dual language programs have existed for about 10 years and are gradually replacing traditional models of bilingual education programs which focus on teaching English to immigrants. This original model was created in the 1960s through the civil rights movement when immigrants asked that their children be taught in both English and their home language so that they were given equal chances to succeed in American society.
The new model of dual language education focuses on bilingual education for all. At least that is how I see it. Children of all linguistic backgrounds spend half of their school time in English and the other half in a target language. They learn to write and read in both languages as well as study content such as math, science, social studies through both languages. For the last ten years, I have helped linguistic communities create dual language programs in French, Japanese, Italian, German, Russian, Arabic and Korean. The families that I have met are motivated by a strong desire to maintain their linguistic heritage - more so than develop English which children are acquiring naturally through their surroundings. For these families, schools should put more value on children’s heritage language and culture, and help them make an asset of their bilingualism.
Also, I see an increasing number of American families - who only speak English at home - value the benefits of bilingualism, bi-literacy, and biculturalism. They, too, ask that schools help them grow multilingual competences in children, and encourage students to acquire new languages as early as possible, preferably through dual language or foreign language immersion. That's good news for any country whose citizens are willing to open their minds to the world and the world of others by mastering languages and discovering new cultures. In my view, this learning process has the potential to foster more respect, tolerance, and understanding of others. Ultimately, I believe this can foster more peace. Moreover, when parents demand that schools provide this kind of bilingual education, it becomes a true revolution. A Bilingual Revolution. And this is the title of my next book[2].
Fabrice's One Good Question: Through both my research on strategic philanthropy in Africa, and my work in bilingual education development in North America, my thinking has revolved around one good question: whether we help improve a public school in Brooklyn or a university in Dar es Salaam: How can we make sure that all actors in the communities that we try to impact are consulted and given an equal voice in the conversation, so that the solutions that we may bring are indeed conceived together and do correspond to real needs?
Fabrice Jaumont holds a Ph.D. in International Education from New York University. His research finds itself at the intersection of comparative and international education, education development, educational diplomacy and philanthropy, heritage language and bilingual education, and community development. He currently serves as Program Officer for FACE Foundation in New York, and as Education Attaché for the Embassy of France to the United States. He is the author of Unequal Partners: American Foundations and Higher Education Development in Africa (Palgrave-MacMillan, 2016). His book, The Bilingual Revolution, features the development of dual language programs in public schools in New York. More information: http://www.FabriceJaumont.net
[1]Unequal Partners: American Foundations and Higher Education Development in Africa (Palgrave-MacMillan)
America Already has Integrated Schools — Here's How We Can Have More.
In his Will America ever have integrated schools ? blog post yesterday, Neerav Kingsland asked for ways to better understand the story for school integration advocacy. Here at One Good Question, I’m usually talking to other people about their perspectives, but since I spend a lot of time wondering about his question myself, I have a few thoughts to share.Dear Neerav,I love that you’re thinking about this from personal, policy, and practical perspectives ! I am a firm believer that no culture is monolithic, so to be fair, there are parents all over the country, who go to great lengths to live in integrated neighborhoods and/or enroll their children in integrated schools, like this recent study of DCPS demonstrates. We could provide personal testimony from thousands of Black, White, and Latinx parents who advocate for integrated schools and related civil rights/social justice equity in their communities. For the sake of this conversation, let’s assume that you don’t mean them. Let's also assume that we're only talking about high-quality education — no one is advocating that we send children to low-performing schools for diversity's sake.
Top-down policy does not create lasting change when the people living through the change are oppositional.
We definitely see that, as court-mandated integration programs end, most communities revert back to segregated schooling. We have bright spots in places like Wake County, North Carolina where the community – White and Black students & families – advocated to maintain their integrated school options after the court mandates ended. In St. Louis majority-white school district leaders maintained their commitment to their desegregation program for 10 years after the court mandate ended. Those decisions take personal conviction and local advocacy/political support. You could also look to communities like Tucson Unified (no pun intended) that achieved unitary status after 30 years of court oversight (it is a long, hard battle), and still needs an ongoing comprehensive plan to remove the traces of the forced segregation in their past. A scalable solution has to include ways to build public will and shift personal attitudes about diversity.
Location, location, location.
To your point that “White parents won’t send their children to poor neighborhoods” Frankenberg and Debray (2011) also argue that we should focus integrated school efforts on deconcentrating low-income housing and starting the work in more affluent communities. White families wouldn’t have to “send their children to poor neighborhoods,” Black/Brown kids wouldn’t have to be bused all over town, districts/coalitions wouldn’t incur the exorbitant cost of said busing, and the community would avoid the White Flight tipping point that happens in more racially tense/fragile mixed communities. I don’t know that any place is actually trying this, but it’s an interesting position.New schools – district or charter – that are intentional about their diverse population are just as intentional about location. I’m most encouraged by the strategy at Rhode Island Mayoral Academies where they locate schools on the borders of the stratified communities that they intend to serve. No one has to leave their greater neighborhood for a quality, diverse education. That's a scalable practice that districts/regions could implement when they create neighborhood school assignment zones.
Rural bright spots.
For the long-term integration argument, I would actually be more focused on census projections. Not in the antagonistic – White people you’re going to be the minority by 2044 ! way, but in the spirit that, if we don’t figure out scalable solutions to integration, our society will implode. I would look to our rural communities, like Beardstown, IL and Carthage, MO, as bellwethers over urban examples. Rural communities are becoming majority-minority at a faster rate than the nation, have relatively few financial resources to respond to the shift, and are using school integration to address the community’s needs.
We’re in a catch-22 here.
What makes resistant families more apt to support school integration ? Positive experience with school integration. To go back to the DCPS study, when everything is equal, families are more likely to choose integrated and high-performing schools. Get the public school quality right, get the location right, launch local campaign on the academic and social benefits of New XXXXX School model and many diverse parents will come.Creating diverse schools as the new normal will take generations, but it is incumbent upon us to promote such integration now. Sustainability of diverse schools and diverse communities requires that the people who live in them have a shared value. What's the best place to teach those shared values on a large scale? Our public schools.Looking forward,Rhonda
One Good Question with John Wood: Teaching the world to read
John Wood photo
This post is part of a series of interviews with international educators, policy makers, and leaders titled “One Good Question.” These interviews provide answers to my One Good Question (outlined in About) and uncover new questions about education’s impact on the future.
“In what ways do our investments in education reveal our beliefs about the next generation’s role in the world?”
Room to Read was founded 15 years ago as a little unknown startup. We boil our belief down to six simple words : World change starts with educated children. We truly believe that if you want to change the future, the biggest no brainer in the world, you start with educating your children. Traditionally, for parents, that means your own children. Those who have been given the gift of education then have an obligation to give back to kids in low-income countries. We have a duty to give back and an opportunity to change things forever. We all have an ancestor who was the one to break the cycle of poverty for our family. Once that cycle is broken, the benefit pays forward for generations. To me, you look at the world today with over 100,000,000 children not in schools, and 2/3 are girls and women. If you want to change the world, then education is the smartest place to start.
“Literacy and primary education have dramatic positive impact on life expectancy, overall health, and ending cycle of extreme poverty in developing nations. Beyond making books and reading accessible, the Room to Read model has created complex local education ecosystems that are highly responsive to local needs. What else does the ecosystem need to be sustainable for all children?”
One of the most important things is that the communities we work with are fully invested in each and every project that we do. It’s not plunking something down for them to use, but co-building something the community is co-invested in. We also need the government to be co-invested in the projects and have some skin in the game as well. Our model is one of local employees, it’s not Americans flying over to do durable projects and telling local people what to do. It’s local community buy-in as employees, volunteers, parents in the planning committee, and then the government providing the teachers and the librarians and paying their salaries. As a result of that ecosystem, and we have the data to prove it, the model is more sustainable over time.
“How are you getting government engagement ? What strategies could other international education NGOs adopt?”
For us, we had to prove that we had a scalable model. Government doesn’t want to work with an NGO unless they have a big vision, a scalable model, resources, and can impact serious scale. That’s what we’ve been able to deliver with the governments. Too many folks want to do one-off projects. What we’re saying is that we can invest impact change at the town, region, even national level.
John's One Good Question: My question is simple. If we know that education is the best way to change the future, and to impact subsequent generations, then why is the world not doing more about the fact that over 750 million people lack basic literacy?
John Wood is the founder of Room to Read. He started Room to Read after a fast-paced and distinguished career with Microsoft from 1991 to 1999. He was in charge of marketing and business development teams throughout Asia, including serving as director of business development for the Greater China region and as director of marketing for the Asia-Pacific region. John continues to bring Room to Read a vision for a scalable solution to developing global educational problems with an intense focus on results and an ability to attract a world-class group of employees, volunteers, and funders. Today, John focuses full-time on long-term strategy, capital acquisition, public speaking, and media opportunities for the organization. John also teaches at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and New York University’s Stern School of Business and serves on the Advisory Board of the Clinton Global Initiative. John holds a bachelor's degree in finance from the University of Colorado and a master’s degree from the Kellogg School of Northwestern University. Follow John on Twitter @JohnWoodRtR.
One Good Question with Susanna Williams: Is Higher Ed the Equalizer We Think?
Susanna Williams
This post is part of a series of interviews with international educators, policy makers, and leaders titled “One Good Question.” These interviews provide answers to my One Good Question and uncover new questions about education’s impact on the future.
“In what ways do our investments in education reveal our beliefs about the next generation’s role in the world?”
Higher education has seen wholesale disinvestment since 2008. The majority of students in our country attend public universities, and 26% attend community colleges. Liberal arts & research institutions serve a very small population of US students, and their funding challenges are unique. As the economy has recovered, the funding has not returned to state-funded higher education. Part of this is a function of discretionary spending at the state level because very little funding comes from federal government. Most states have mandated spending that has to be accounted for, but higher education is one of the few discretionary lines, so states tend to turn to the public universities and say « charge more tuition. » At the same time as tuition is increasing, we’re getting the message that the full pathway to life is through college attainment. Universities are then seeking outside students—foreign nationals and out-of state students who will pay the sticker price for tuition as opposed to the in-state rates. So there are fewer seats available for lower-income applicants.
Employers then use the college name as a basis for hiring. So community college students are at a disadvantage on the hiring market, unless they are health care assistants, and the hospital has a relationship with their specific college program. Connections become pathways to employment and prosperity.
When we do not fund quality education, yet hold people’s lives accountable as though they have received that education, we’re actually saying that we don’t believe that education is something that everyone in our country should have equal access to. And we’re ok with some people being poor and we’re ok with some people not having access to opportunity.
“How did the funding become discretionary?”
Higher education and public policy hasn’t caught up with modern times. When state constitutions were written, basic education was just K-12 through the 1970s. At that time, you could get a great manufacturing job or vocational training and make solid money. Then the world changed. The only thing slower to change than education is government. There is a strong case for community colleges to be a part of basic education and should be included as K-14 education. The State of Washington’s constitution’s first prioirity is to fully fund basic education, but they’re not meeting basic expectations. Look at funding formulas driven by property taxes and tax code and no one wants to tackle the tax code. It’s not sexy and doesn’t win you elections.
“Who’s actually having this conversation?”
I’m not sure people are connecting the dots. The only way it’s happening is through lawsuits over K-12 education. State legislatures have been held in contempt of court because they haven’t figured it out. That’s another conversation that we don’t want to have. What is it that families do? We need to be asking what does it actually cost to educate a child who does not grow up with the benefit of house with books, afterschool curriculum, print-rich nursery school environment? What does a middle class child have as ancillary benefits? What are the habits that their families inculcate and the culture that they grow up in? How can we provide those standards for all children?
“In our analog/digital divide, higher ed institutions are working feverishly to incorporate new tech tools and communication paradigms into their pedagogy and engagement. Do the tools really matter for this generation? How should post-secondary institutions position themselves for responsive/inclusive engagement?”
With respect to the founding of higher education in Europe, the primary function was to train priests. Higher education today retains the vestiges of that holy process. It is serious and magical and spiritual, and you can’t touch that or dirty that with technology and money is the worst kind of profanity. People keep calling for the end of college. Colorado had a major freakout about MOOCS, which challenges the delivery of higher education. I think there’s a big disruption coming. Competency-based education is going to shift the paradigm and project based learning will change instructional practice. Badges of proficiency will change that option. When we remove the Carnegie credit hour and let students show what they can do, then we no longer need to have institutions as arbitors of confidence.
We say that institution and pedigree matters, yet people still hire based on who they know and how comfortable they feel with that person. Take the example of The Wire and the network of the dealers on the street. That show demonstrates that networks are equally powerful in dark economy and formal economy. Our challenge is to figure out how to teach and give networks to other people. If you win the lottery and leave East Flatbush, and make it to the Ivy’s, there’s no guarantee that you will be able to access the network of the Ivy League. Again, this assumes that access and equity are goals of education. There’s a big divide in education philosophy between those who are warriors for justice through education and those who are gatekeeprs to keep marginalized people out of power structures. I forget that others use education as a sorting tool.
Susanna’s One Good Question: How do we effectively move people to opportunity in our country, if we don’t agree that everyone should have opportunity?
Founder & CEO of BridgEd Strategies, is a lifelong educator and communications specialist with over 15 years of experience as a teacher, administrator, and strategic leader in K-12, higher education, and the philanthropic sector as well as political campaigns. Susanna led marketing, communications, and government relations at Renton Technical College, while also serving as the executive director of the Renton Technical College Foundation. She joined the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's Postsecondary Success team in 2012 after connecting with the director through a blind message on LinkedIn. Active on Twitter since 2009, Susanna is a strong advocate for the power of social media and the power of networks. A 2011 German Marshall Memorial Fellow, Susanna received a Masters in Education from Bank Street College of Education and a Bachelors in Politics from Earlham College. She lives in her home borough of Brooklyn, New York.
One Good Question with Noelle Lim: What STEAM Could Mean for Malaysia.
Noëlle Lim
This post is part of a series of interviews with international educators, policy makers, and leaders titled “One Good Question.” These interviews provide answers to my One Good Question and uncover new questions about education’s impact on the future.
“In what ways do our investments in education reveal our beliefs about the next generation’s role in the world?”
In Malaysia, education takes the lion share in the government budget, so it's clear the government is fairly serious about it. One reason is cultural, our society prizes good education, and another is that Malaysia relies on foreign investments, so it's an open economy that needs to have a globally competent workforce.Parents are serious about education too. For example, in Malaysia and developed countries of Asia, it's a norm for parents with the means to pay for their child to attend supplementary classes conducted by private tutors. However, I think parents pay for these classes, not in hope their child will become the next Nobel Prize winners, but to pass the national exams with straight As. It's assumed that if you do this, you can perhaps win a scholarship or get a place in a good university, and you'll be set for life.
“During your Eisenhower Fellowship, you came to the States to learn more about education entrepreneurship. How will your school design reflect learning and innovation from both countries?”
The PISA rankings show that Malaysia's education system is in the bottom one third (yet neighbor Singapore is number one), and TIMSS show that Malaysia is below average international standards (it was above average in the 1990s). It appears to be an uphill task for Malaysia to catch up. I don't think we need to aspire to be number one, but aim to be in the top quartile. And I think we're capable of doing that because our society values education.Malaysian schools needs to upgrade the content of what they are teaching. For instance, an online, centralized database of teaching notes with suggested pedagogy and updates could help the schools.Secondly, the current method of teaching in Malaysia, and indeed still in many countries, is done in silo. We don't help students connect dots, and there's a push for STEM in Malaysia. I believe the focus has to shift to STEAM instead and subjects to be taught in an interdisciplinary way. Finding solutions to complex problems in the world requires a more comprehensive way of thinking, and a combination of science and arts/humanities. Innovations too, for example the iPad is a marriage of tech prowess and design.In the States, I visited two schools that are shifting from STEM to STEAM and incorporating more holistic offerings such as entrepreneurship and liberal arts : North Carolina Math & Science and Illinois Mathematics & Science Academy. I chose those schools because the Ministry of Education from Singapore and Chinese frequently visit them. These public schools have strong academic performance, particularly in STEM, and selective admissions. At the North Carolina campus, the chancellor Todd Roberts, has a degree in English and believes in a well-rounded education. Illinois Math & Science is developing an entrepreneurship thread. They are mobilizing their alumni base and drawing them in to mentor students and provide internships in start-ups in Chicago. These are gradual processes, to move towards STEAM instructional expectations.Two questions that I asked almost all schools I visited were « What is the purpose of a school? What is the purpose of education? » Apart from ensuring children are literate and know their sums, I believe it's about helping the student discover a range of possible interests and to help the child choose which path to pursue and to arm him with the relevant information. This means schools have to give the child opportunities to work on projects of personal interests like capstone projects. Once the child finds his interest, there is no looking back. Many successful people I've interviewed, say that what they do is their passion and luck of course helps. Either they found their passion by accident or were drawn to it by a mentor. I think schools can play a bigger role in helping children find their passion.I also believe schools should produce people who will develop the agency, aptitude and desire to want to solve complex problems. It's not just to pass exams, but to create the next generation of scientists, artists, makers, entrepreneurs, and leaders.
Noëlle’s One Good Question : How well does our education system engage students? Ideally, I would specify "boys" rather than just "students" because boys are falling behind in Malaysia. Girls outperform boys in Maths and Science unlike international norms. And in public universities, girls account for 70% of the intake. Our education blueprint has highlighted the risk of "lost boys". It appears our education system isn't really working out for boys. Given the patriarchal expectations within conservative communities, I wonder what impact this achievement gap will have on the next generation.
Noelle Lim is a presenter and producer with BFM 89.9, Malaysia’s only business radio station, and heads its education division, BFM Business School. She is interested in the intersection of media, education, and technology. During her Eisenhower Fellowship, she investigated innovations in high school curriculum and pedagogy to inform her plan to start a school and to launch a project that prepares and connects low-income students in Malaysia and Southeast Asia to the best schools in the US, UK and Australia.