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Matthew Lynch published in Matthew Lynch, OpEducation, Policy & Reform

Rethinking the Emphasis on Standardized Testing

Note: Today’s guest blog is from Robert Sun, chairman, president and CEO of Suntex International Inc. and inventor of First In Math, an online program designed for deep practice in mathematics. He is a nationally recognized expert in the use of technology to enhance mathematics education; for more information, visit www.firstinmath.com.

Many who are concerned with education reform in the U.S. look to Asian education systems as the model to follow. Whether for cultural, economic or political reasons, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, China, and other Asian nations are widely considered to be societies that get public education right.

Children in many Asian countries are outperforming their global peers, and test scores are high. According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s most recent PISA study, the United States ranks 36 out of 65 countries in mathematics proficiency. Those at the top include the Chinese, specifically children in Shanghai and Hong Kong.

One would think that China, India and South Korea in particular—countries known to hold schools, teachers and students accountable for performance through rigorous and repeated testing—have the formula all figured out. But let’s look at what’s currently happening in these high-achieving nations.

In China, kids march to the unrelenting drumbeat of standardized testing beginning at age eight. The testing odyssey lasts through middle school and high school, reaching its apex with the National Higher Education Entrance Examination, commonly known as “Gaokao.” Passing this grueling, multi-day test is the sole prerequisite for college entry. Students spend years preparing for it.

So what does China have to show for its stringent academic system? Unemployment among Chinese graduates six months after leaving college is officially around 15% (some Chinese researchers estimate twice that number), despite the fact that a record 7.26 million young people will graduate from the country’s many universities this year—a number seven times greater than just 15 years ago.

At the same time, according to the Nikkei Asian Review, an acute shortage of factory workers throughout China is causing managers to hire students from technical schools as apprentices. Yukon Huang, senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, reports that China’s non-graduate unemployment is as low as 4%, causing graduates to consider blue-collar jobs despite their college degrees.

India is facing similar problems. One in three Indian college graduates under the age of 29 is unemployed, according to a November 2013 report issued by the Indian Labour Ministry. Experts report that skill development programs and college education are not creating the sort of training that is in demand in the manufacturing and services sectors.

Meanwhile, ICEF Monitor, a marketing intelligence provider for the international education industry, reported that South Korea’s emphasis on academics is beginning to have diminished returns. Despite education spending that is significantly above the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) average as a percentage of GDP, South Korea’s rate of graduate employment among university-educated 25-34 year-olds is just 75%, ranking it among the lowest in OECD countries, and well below the average of 82%.

After following the academic testing mantra for more than a decade, these countries are totalling the results—millions of stressed-out graduates with skills that oftentimes don’t match up with two of the most pressing needs of their societies: first, young workers who are technically trained; and second, individuals who are encouraged to be innovative, out-of-the-box thinkers.

China is only beginning to face this new realization head on. Its education ministry recently stated that it wishes to turn 600 of the nation’s universities into polytechnic schools in order to produce more technical graduates. In many areas of the country, factory jobs are paying more than entry-level office positions—a clear attempt to steer more potential white-collar workers back into empty blue-collar jobs.

For many countries with “model” education systems, it’s becoming clear that a focus on standardized testing is actually killing the kind of independent thinking that fosters creative prowess. Among the top 10 economies in the Global Innovation Index (GII), the annual innovation ranking co-published by Cornell University INSEAD and World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), a UN agency, only two are Asian (Singapore at #7 and Hong Kong at #10). Notably, the top five positions are all held by European countries, followed by the U.S. in sixth place. China, on the other hand, is ranked 29th, and India is far down the list at #76.

No one doubts that for a nation to remain competitive it needs to prepare their next generation for success in the STEM disciplines (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math). The question is, how many STEM graduates are needed? Even here in the U.S., attitudes are changing.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that while the total U.S. labor force will grow from 153.9 million in 2010 to 174.4 million in 2020—a 14.3% increase—engineering jobs will grow by only 11% over that same period (from 1.34 million to 1.45 million). Ten of the 15 engineering disciplines, in fact, will experience slower than average growth.

As someone who has spent years in the pursuit of math proficiency among America’s young people, I believe that mathematics is essential not only to lifetime success, but also for a society’s future. But in this worthy pursuit, we should not slavishly define standardized testing as the benchmark of effectiveness. Moreover, we should realize that testing can have a significant, even debilitating, downside for our children.

Testing has its place as long as it doesn’t push kids away from a sense of wonder and fascination for the world around them. Finland, another country held high for its academic excellence, believes that the overall goal should be a child’s holistic development. Finnish schools pursue the notion that children have different kinds of intellects. In fact the national curriculum dictates that public schools must have a balanced program including art, music, crafts and physical education—plus sufficient time for self-directed activities.

If America is to succeed in educating its students for the future, it’s becoming increasingly clear that rigid, standardized testing isn’t the magical solution. Global competitiveness is important—but it probably won’t come through a regimented, computer-scored exam.

A far more worthy goal would be to create a system wherein the whole individual is addressed, developed, and encouraged to thrive in the pursuit of a better life. That’s a lesson that Asia is just now beginning to learn—and it’s one we should as well, before it’s too late.

 

 

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Matthew Lynch published in Equity, HBCU's, Higher Education

Why scholars emphasize the need for affirmative action

Kalpana Jain, The Conversation

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, during oral arguments in the affirmative action case, Fisher v University of Texas, on Wednesday, December 9, suggested,

There are those who contend that it does not benefit African-Americans to get them into the University of Texas, where they do not do well — as opposed to having them go to a less advanced school, a slower-track school where they do well.

Justice Scalia is no stranger to controversy. In an earlier Supreme Court ruling upholding Obamacare tax credits for people on the federal exchange in June 2015, Justice Scalia was scathing in his dissent from the majority opinion.

Writing for The Conversation, Robert Schapiro, dean and professor of Law , Emory University, said:

When Justice Scalia gets mad, he does not hold back. He has often adopted fairly sharp language in his dissents but even by that standard, his dissent in King v Burwell is extraordinary in tone…. His vituperation reaches a crescendo in the conclusion where he snipes, “We should start calling this law SCOTUScare.”

Scholars and journalists alike have emphasized the seminal nature of the Fisher v University of Texas case. Indeed, a number of our contributors have argued that the case could exacerbate the racial tensions that have been evident through protests on campuses around the country.

Clearly, following this week’s oral arguments, the world of social media was on fire. Students and others tweeted at hashtag #scalia. Some even denounced Scalia’s comments with a hashtag of “#impeachscalia.”

Why the case is pivotal

Scholars argue that the judgment in the case will influence not only the admissions policies at UT, but in colleges and universities across the nation. And that could have consequences not just for diversity in education, but also for the educational success of students of color.

Liliana M Garces, an assistant professor at Pennsylvania State University, who served as counsel of record in a friend-of-the-court brief filed in support of the University of Texas at Austin when the case was before the court in 2012, said:

We might not think that admissions policies can have an influence on the work of administrators charged with supporting students of color once they are on campus, but findings from a more recent study suggest that the influence of these laws extend beyond the composition of the student body. Bans on affirmative action can have a detrimental influence on work that is critical to the success of students of color on campus.

Garces’ research also shows that after eight states banned affirmative action, via ballot initiatives and other measures, there was a drop in the number of students of color.

Before bans on affirmative action, for every 100 students matriculated in medical schools in states with bans, there were 18 students of color, whereas after the ban, for every 100 students matriculated, about 15 were students of color.

The case came before the Supreme Court after Abigail Fisher, a white female, applied to the University of Texas at Austin and was denied admission. She sued the university stating the university’s race-conscious admissions policy violated the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. A lower court decided in UT’s favor.

In 2013, however, the Supreme Court sent the case back to the lower court to conduct a more rigorous assessment of whether UT Austin needed to consider race in admissions.

Garces with her coauthor, Gary Orfield, a professor of education, law, political science and urban planning at University of California, Los Angeles, makes a strong argument that the decision in the case could affect affirmative action policy in higher education in general.

While the case raises questions specific to UT-Austin’s program, it is also possible that the Supreme Court may further limit the use of race in higher education admissions policies for institutions across the nation.

Other scholars underline the importance of looking at the historical context of the origins of affirmative action.

Tanya Washington, professor of law at Georgia State University, says:

Franklin D Roosevelt was the first president to issue an executive order prohibiting racial discrimination in hiring defense contractors in 1943. But it was President John F Kennedy who, in an executive order in 1961, coined the term “affirmative action” to stop racial discrimination by government contractors. Subsequently, state and local governments, including universities, were inspired to introduce similar programs to promote equal opportunity.

In her article, Washington refers to the recent protests on campuses across the country. Black students continue to experience hostility because of their skin color.

Colleges and universities, she says, urgently need policies to address these challenges.

One such existing policy includes the limited consideration of race in admission decisions. This policy allows institutions to build a racially and ethnically diverse student body.

What is happening globally?

Policymakers in the US are not the only ones to have pushed for affirmative action.

Michele S Moses, professor of Educational Foundations and Policy, University of Colorado and Laura Dudley Jenkins, associate professor of Political Science, University of Cincinnati, argue that about one-quarter of the world’s other countries have some form of affirmative action for higher education. And many of these programs have emerged over the last 25 years.

A wide variety of institutions and governments on six continents have programs to expand admissions of non-dominant groups of students on the basis of race, gender, ethnicity, class, geography, or type of high school. Several use a combination of these categories.

In fact, as they point out, “the United States’ affirmative action policies in higher education are not the oldest: India’s policies for lower caste students take that prize.”

And this should give policy makers in the US pause, “given that US policies are older than most, much of the cutting edge thinking on the topic is now coming from other parts of the world.”

The Conversation

Kalpana Jain, Editor, The Conversation

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

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Matthew Lynch published in Matthew Lynch, Policy & Reform

Special Education Graduation Rates Lag Behind

More than four out of five high school students graduated on time in 2014, the highest rate on record. Although some discredit the statistics validity, it’s fairly clear that obtaining a high school diploma is better than not. Though these rates are an achievement, lost in the discussion is the much lower rate of graduation for special education students.

Nationwide, only 63 percent of students with disabilities graduated in 2014, a rate of approximately 20 percent lower than the national average. In states including Mississippi, Nevada and Georgia, special needs students graduated at half the rate of their non-disabled peers. The rate for students with disabilities is lower than 60 percent in 20 states.

These depressed rates and the large gap between special needs students and non-disabled students is alarming. Particularly because it has been documented that students with disabilities who graduate are much more likely to spend their early adult years in school, preparing for work and ultimately working, when compared to those who do not graduate. Students with disabilities who obtain a high school diploma are three times less likely to get into trouble with the law than their peers who dropout.

The bright side is that research has identified what steps need to be taken in order to reach more special needs students and ensure graduation. Rates are higher in states in which disabled students are encouraged to obtain a diploma with the same requirements for students without disabilities. Interestingly, graduation rates for students with disabilities are significantly lower in states that offer alternative special education diplomas. These diplomas are emended so that students do not need to meet general education requirements.

Graduation rates for students with disabilities have improved slightly over the past few years. The increase has been attributed to increased endeavors to support students with disabilities and integrate them into general education classrooms. To continue the upswing in special education graduation rates, students with disabilities will need to be a top priority. High expectations and clear methods to reach these students will be paramount if the graduation rates are to continue to improve.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/todd-grindal/post_10880_b_8976972.html

 

Click here to read all our posts concerning the Achievement Gap.

 

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Matthew Lynch published in Higher Education

4 ways university professionals can boost student success

**The Edvocate is pleased to publish this guest post on stealth assessment as a way to fuel important conversations surrounding P-20 education in America. The opinions contained within guest posts are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official opinion of The Edvocate or Dr. Matthew Lynch.**

A guest post by Anica Oaks

Students sometimes need a little extra help, encouragement or advice to succeed at college. Not all students have the same levels of skills and motivation when they come to class and complete their assignments. University professionals, including professors, teaching assistants and staff, can do a number of things to help boost students’ success. The following are some of the best strategies for improving the performance of students who may need a little extra help.

Provide Clear Guidelines for Success

In order to succeed, students must have a clear idea of what’s expected of them. They should be aware exactly what counts towards their grade in each class. In some classes, exams and term papers are the main criteria. Other classes require a certain amount of class participation. Students should be told precisely what percentage of their grades depend on which factors.

Encourage Students to Communicate With Professors

Some students who need extra help may be reluctant to ask for it. When students are having a problem, they should be encouraged to communicate with their professors. If students don’t initiate this communication, it’s up to the professor or faculty adviser to do so. If someone is performing poorly in a particular class, he or she should make an appointment to speak to the professor during office hours.

Help Students Find the Right Schedule and Curriculum

Many students have busy schedules, often balancing work, school and family commitments. Not all students can realistically attend classes full-time. Students who take more classes than they can handle often burn out or don’t do as well as they should in any of their classes. In some cases, part time study is more appropriate. Another solution for students facing time restrictions is an online degree program. Helping students identify the most practical and convenient way to study can help them succeed.

Make Student Services Easy to Access

Many students can benefit from counseling, career guidance and other college services. They may need to talk to someone about personal or academic issues that they can’t discuss with their professor, parents or friends. Colleges usually offer a wide variety of services through professionals with a master’s in higher education program, but students are not always aware of how to access them. Some students may feel reluctant to seek help. That’s why it’s important to assure students that there’s no shame in seeking help and that their sessions will be completely confidential.

Success in college requires a healthy partnership between students, professors and others, including deans, faculty advisers and counselors. Students may need some special encouragement to access the resources that are available to them on campus. It’s important for university professionals to closely monitor students and identify what kind of help they may need.

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Anica is a professional content and copywriter who graduated from the University of San Francisco. She loves dogs, the ocean, and anything outdoor-related. She was raised in a big family, so she’s used to putting things to a vote. Also, cartwheels are her specialty. You can connect with Anica here. If you are interested in becoming an educator, Anica suggests that you check out a master’s degree in higher education from Abilene Christian University.

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Matthew Lynch published in Policy & Reform

How to get boys excited about reading

Decades of data show girls outscoring boys on a range of language skills. Four ELA teachers share their best practices for closing the gap.

A guest post by Dr. Jackie Arnold

“Girls are better readers than boys” is an educational generalization that happens to be backed up by decades of data. According to the 2015 “Brown Center Report on American Education” from The Brookings Institution:

Girls outscore boys on practically every reading test given to a large population. And they have for a long time. A 1942 Iowa study found girls performing better than boys on tests of reading comprehension, vocabulary, and basic language skills. Girls have outscored boys on every reading test ever given by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)—the first long-term trend test was administered in 1971—at ages nine, 13, and 17.

Given this reality, our task as educators is to do our best to spark boys’ interest in reading and keep them at it. For some advice on how to make this idea a reality in the classroom, I asked teachers from Salem Community Schools in Indiana to share their best practices.

Find Out What They’re Interested In

According to fifth-grade teacher Bev Sweeney, “The boys especially like the sports and vehicle stories and the gross and silly, plus mysteries.” Fourth-grade teacher Melissa Nicholson said that, when her boys are allowed to choose what they read, “the ‘gross and scary’ books are some of their favorites.”

Boys are also engaged by stories that they are familiar with, said Amy Collins. “As a fourth-grade teacher, I find it easy to find reading lessons that interest boys in my classroom, due to the fact that we study Indiana history and we focus on Native Americans, the Civil War, and the American Revolution. My students love to tie our Social Studies and reading together.”

Fifth-grade Language Arts teacher Susan L. Shields relies on the power of great characters. “It is important to ‘hook’ young readers by offering them interesting characters to which they can relate,” she said. “The students in my classroom love the characters developed by Gertrude Chandler Warner in The Boxcar Children series, as well as the characters brought to life by Beverly Cleary in the Henry and Beezus books. The students come to view these characters as their ‘book friends’ and are truly sorry when the book ends because they have to tell their ‘friends’ goodbye.” And, she added, “Offering boys characters of similar age and gender will usually increase the amount of independent reading boys are willing to do.”

All ELA teachers at Salem use the personalized learning environment myON, which helps students find books they’ll like by having them complete an “interest inventory.” The system then delivers a selection of books geared to the individual student. Of course, finding an engaging book is one thing, but getting boys to read the whole thing is another.

Keep Them Motivated

Sweeney said that her secret to making boys want to keep reading is to “read a portion of a book to them and stop when they want to hear more.”

Once a boy starts reading a book, Shields monitors whether it too hard for him by giving benchmark assessments from time to time. And, she said, “Because myON offers a quiz at the end of each book along with quick results, students earn tickets from our classroom economy for each correct answer. This also serves as motivation.”

During reading groups, Nicholson motivates students by having them listen to or read books with a friend. “The boys especially like this,” she said, “due to getting to work with a buddy. Also, the different voices used in the stories really pull in my readers to engage them in the plot.”

Shields also gives the students in her Language Arts class 10 to 15 minutes a day for silent, sustained reading. She uses the website Book Adventure daily to assess boys’ comprehension of the chapter books they choose.

Giving boys a choice of reading material and the support they need to get through it has paid off for Shields. In her class, she said, “boys are reading as much as or more than the girls. The average number of tests passed on Book Adventure for the boys in my class is 5.9 for the year. The average number of books for the girls is 5.0.”

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Dr. Jackie Arnold is the Director of Assessment and Program Improvement at Salem Community Schools (IN).

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Matthew Lynch published in Matthew Lynch, Policy & Reform

6 Saddening Facts about Childhood Obesity and Unhealthy Body Image

The rate of obesity among children is skyrocketing—and this is something to worry about. After all, as you might expect, obese children are at a higher risk for diseases such as diabetes, arthritis and heart disease.

But there are some other things that you might not know about childhood obesity and its implications.

1. For example, did you know that…by the age of four, one out of every five children is obese? Yes, a full twenty percent of children are obese by the time they are four years old.

2. Obese children also tend to have low self-esteem, poor grades, and are less likely to attend college (particularly girls).

3. Children from low-income families and those of Hispanic, African American and Native American heritage are at a higher risk of falling prey to obesity.

4. Poor diet and lack of exercise are the two main culprits. Simply put, sedentary behaviors are on the rise. The average American youth watches 1,500 hours of television per year and they go to school an average of 900 hours per year – the math right there should tell you something about where our kids are learning the most, and how it is being absorbed.

During the 1500 hours of television watching, experts tell us that children are mostly eating high calorie snacks. Additionally, American society is riddled with fast food, refined foods and processed foods that calorie laden. Is it any surprise that so many children in this country struggle with their weight?

5. Television and other activities at home are not the only factors to blame, though. Our K-12 schools are also playing a role in the rise in obesity and unhealthy lifestyles among kids. To start with, many schools lack physical education programs, with a mere 4 percent of elementary schools, 8 percent of middle schools, and 2 percent of high schools offering daily physical education.

6. Perhaps the oddest point when it comes to the rising rate of obesity is this: American culture teaches children that thin is better, and that you simply cannot be too thin. Rising rates of anorexia and bulimia among young women and men are the result of poor messages about body image that children frequently hear. These eating disorders generally begin between the ages of 11 and 13, particularly for girls. In fact, nearly half of all girls from grade 1 to grade 3 want to be thinner. The top wish for girls ages 11 to 17 is to lose weight.

Obviously, messages American children receive from the media and society in general need to change. Young girls learn that to be attractive and to be a success, you must be thin. Boys receive similar messages and learn that thin and muscular is the preferred body type. As a result, boys as young as 10 years old are bulking up at the gym and many young men are taking steroids to build muscle, at great detriment to their overall health.

So on one hand, children learn that they need to remain thin to be attractive and successful. But on the other hand, they do not have the resources to establish healthy eating habits on any level – and schools are really no help.

For schools to really get behind a healthy approach to body image, diet and exercise, an atmosphere that promotes acceptance of self and the importance of overall health should be established. Classroom and learning materials should portray different body types and images. Ensuring students know a thin body isn’t necessarily a healthy body and that healthy bodies come in all shapes and sizes is also important. It is not enough to simply tell them though; students need to be equipped with healthy lifestyle tools to make the right choices when they are on their own.

What do you think we as Americans do to better address both the obesity and unhealthy body image issues that run rampant among K-12 students? Please leave a comment in the comment section below—I would appreciate hearing your thoughts.

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Matthew Lynch published in Policy & Reform, Testing

Education officials to re-examine standardized testing

Education officials will re-examine standardized testing in the U.S. due to growing complaints from the public. The general consensus is that students pre-kindergarten to 12th grade are taking too many exams.

Michael Casserly, executive director of the Council of Great City Schools recently said, “Testing is an important part of education, and of life. But it’s time that we step back and see if the tail is wagging the dog.” The Council of Great city schools represents 67 urban school systems.

The Council of Chief State School Officers, which represents education commissioners in every state, has also joined in on the effort.

Teachers have always administered tests; but exams became a federal mandate in 2002 under the No Child Left Behind Act. It requires states to test students annually in math and reading, starting in grades 3 through 8 and ending with high school.

In the past two years, four states have delayed or repealed graduation testing requirements. Four other states, including Texas, where the idea of using these tests began, have reduced the number of exams required or decreased their consequences.

In addition to federally required tests, states have added on more assessments, many that mandate exams such as an exit test to graduate high school.

On average, students in large urban school districts take 113 standardized tests between pre-K and 12th grade.

The number of standardized tests that U.S. students take is too high. While I feel that the idea to use tests to hold schools accountable is a good one, the frequency and redundancy of standardized testing has gone too far. It is essential to measure student achievement, but I hope that further analysis of standardized testing will lead to ways to relieve some of the burden that these tests bring to our students.

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Matthew Lynch published in Policy & Reform

Nutritional school lunches on the rise, study finds

A new study has found an increase in nutritional school lunches and other meals since the implementation Michelle Obama’s Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act, according to the Christian Science Monitor.

In 2012 when the healthier food standards were implemented, naysayers voiced concern that fewer students would eat the school lunch. A new study has dismantled those ideas and found that meals have become more nutritionally wholesome and students are still eating them.

The Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act (HHFKA) was signed into law in 2010 and it called for larger portions of  whole grains, vegetables and fruits. The nutritional school lunches also saw a reduction in calories found in lunches and breakfasts served at school.

Nutritional school lunches being eaten, too

In a report published earlier this month in the journal JAMA Pediatrics, a study from the University of Washington Nutritional Sciences Program found that the new, healthier meal standards have really impacted the quality of meals served at schools.

The scientists compared data collected in the 16 months before the standards went into effect with data collected in the 15 months after the implementation of the new standards. They examined the nutritional value of 1.7 million school meals that were picked out by 7,200 kids from an urban area in Washington. The findings showed that the presence of six nutrients went up: iron, protein, fiber, calcium, Vitamin A, and Vitamin C.

The researchers write that these changes can be attributed primarily to the increased servings of fruits and vegetables in the nutritional school lunch standards.

Donna B. Johnson, lead author and a professor at the University of Washington, admits limits in their research and includes the fact that the study analyzed food that students chose, not what they consumed. She points out that plate waste has not risen since the changes of HHFKA took place — a huge finding that contradicts those who say school lunches are simply not being eaten as a result of HHFKA.

Other data is expected to come forward in the next year to confirm or negate this study’s findings on nutrition progress.

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Matthew Lynch published in Policy & Reform

California education funding sees a boost

Pre-recession spending levels are back in California. Well, at least California education funding has returned to pre-recession levels. Students are seeing the same funding to their schools that existed before the housing crash of 2008.

According to Sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com, “[s]oaring tax revenues have carried per-pupil education spending in California beyond where it stood before the Great Recession.”

But is California education funding really improving?

On the surface that seems to be awesome news as state legislatures had cut California education funding in the face of budget cutbacks and dwindling tax coffers.

But as information posted via Redding.com points out, the funding is still not enough. California education funding is still in the bottom 10 of states when it comes to adequately resourcing students and schools. Getting back to pre-recession levels is nothing to celebrate; it’s just a starting point for what needs to be funding reform for the education in the state.

It will also be interesting to watch how quickly funding could expire as economies continue to grow. The marker is that California’s tax revenue seems to be healthy again, but we’re basing that off of money accumulated nearly 10 years ago. If we adjusted the funding based on what is actually being earned, and taxed, today this news may not seem so rosy.

What’s honestly the most surprising is that it has taken this long for the levels to return to 2007 levels. We should have seen this news in 2011 or 2012. It’s still not enough though rising education funding is something worth praising.

Even with that bit of information, new money, or old money dependent upon how one views it, is good. More investment for education isn’t a bad thing. I just hope that California education funding continues to grow so its students see better appropriation in their state.

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Matthew Lynch published in EdTech & Innovation, Education News, Matthew Lynch

Google diversity: Will the tech giant get it right?

As the first tech company to announce its diversity statistics in May of 2014, Google admits to poor numbers again in 2015. A whopping 70 percent of Google’s workforce in 2014 was male, while just 3 percent of its U.S. staff was Hispanic and only 2 percent were Black. Google diversity, or lack thereof, is just a small sampling of the industry as a whole, though.

For 2015, overall gender Google diversity by in large remained the same. However, there was slight improvement with a 1 percent increase in the number of women in tech positions. There was also a slim increase in women in leadership positions within Google. However, the same can not be said for Hispanic and Black representation, as they remained at 3 and 2 percent respectively, and only 2 and 1 percent in technology-focused jobs.

How can Google diversity improve?

Though the figures are alarming, Google has committed to rectifying the situation and has invested nearly $150 million in diversity goals for 2015.

Google diversity funds are being used to recruit on non-Ivy League university campuses, which include state schools with diverse student bodies and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (or HBCUs). Current employees are being trained and participating in diversity enhancing projects. The investment is also being made in computer science education for girls and diverse underrepresented populations. Although 72 percent of Google’s leadership team is white, Google’s CEO, Sundar Pichai, is Indian-born and committed to diversifying the company.

It’s clear that Google diversity numbers are incredibly lackluster. There is a huge imbalance in gender and minority representation. At the same time, Google deserves recognition for bringing this information to light and prompting the entire tech industry to take a closer look at its diversity figures. With Google’s investment of hundreds of millions of dollars, the proper steps are being taken to ensure that more women and minorities get into computer science and engineering programs and eventually, tech jobs in the first place.

Read all of our posts about EdTech and Innovation by clicking here. 

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