Global Strategies

On Early Learning in Portland Public Schools

At the 2/27/12 budget meeting of the Portland Public Schools Board, Harriett Adair, Director of Pre-Kindergarten Programs, gave a fifteen minute power point  presentation on “Early Learners” in PPS. Her written materials are here. The above video shows Adair, with questions from Board members Ruth Adkins and Trudy Sargent, and focuses on what I think should be another priority for PPS: the integration and expansion of early childhood programs into the PPS system. Let me make several points about this effort:

(1)   Foreign language immersion programs should begin as young as possible, which means some, probably many, early childhood programs should be in foreign languages (and not just Spanish) and feed into the kindergarten immersion programs. Nowhere in Adair’s materials or presentation were foreign languages mentioned.

(2)   I support shifting resources from upper grades to early childhood learning. The Board could, and should, follow my suggestions (here) on saving money at the high school level with online courses and shift those resources (if still available after general cuts) to early childhood programs. And they should do this as rapidly as possible.

Note: I made some rough estimates of possible saving statewide from shifting to one online course (independent from bricks-and-mortar schools) for ten percent of the high school population (here). Applying those same rough estimates to PPS yields $472,188 to $867,844 to be shifted from high school programs to early learning (or lost to general cuts). (43,314 students divided by 12 times four times 0.1 (equals 1,444) time $327 or $601)

(3)   I support Ruth Adkins effort to have an early learning plan (program) as an integral part of PPS. And I support making space for early learning programs part of PPS facilities plan.

(4)   One wonders why space for early learning programs was not considered during the recent enrollment balancing process. Like planning for foreign language immersion programs, space planning for early learning programs was left out of that process.

Strategically, PPS need to be making three simultaneous shifts: to stronger foreign language programs (immersion programs, strategic languages, high school study abroad programs), to more online offering both to save funds and to open opportunities (including a wider variety of foreign languages), and to more and better early learning programs. Right now PPS is doing little on any of these.  

Update 2/28/12: Harriet Adair emailed me to say (in part): "We do have three all spanish classrooms at the Head Start Sacajawea site whose students should feed into Rigler and Scott's Spanish Immersion programs, a Japanese language PK that feeds into the Richmond program and a Spanish PK that feeds into the Beach Spanish Immersion."

Video: "Hong Kong: Funky Time Lapse"

Oregon legislative fight over jobs forgets exports

Smart CEOs are betting on emerging market for growth at home.

The Oregon Legislature is in the closing hours of its 2012 session. Conflicting, special interest driven, views of what would create jobs divide Democrats and Republicans, with neither side pushing for more international exports or changes in Oregon’s educational system to support more exports. The Oregonian article “Oregon 2012 Legislature starts final week (maybe) with job bills very much in debate” by Michelle Cole reports (here):

Republicans want to leverage Oregon's natural resources, creating more jobs by increasing logging on state forests, drawing more water out of the Columbia River for farmers and expanding enterprising zones that offer tax breaks to businesses that locate in economically hard-hit areas.

Democrats' jobs agenda focuses primarily on getting capital into the hands of businesses through government-backed loans, grants or public works projects.

Philosophical differences between the parties have killed many proposals because they couldn't get majority support.

House Democrats tried last Thursday to persuade House Republicans to go along with a plan offering $29.6 million in lottery bond financing for transportation, public works and community college construction projects.

Rep. Dave Hunt, a Democrat from Gladstone and co-chair of the Transportation and Economic Development Committee, reminded his colleagues that they all said they wanted to create jobs and many of these projects were ready to go.

Neither side is offering proposals to increase exports or for the Oregon’s education system to have stronger foreign language programs or high school study abroad programs. Neither reflects the views of Chris Policinski, president and CEO of Land O'Lakes (here, from a CNN Money article by Nina Easton)):

….One key for U.S. job growth lays in selling more of our stuff to a non-American middle class. The profligate American buyer, long the driver of the global economy and the engine behind booms (and busts), is taking a big break from spending. Gallup reports a "new normal" of everyday spending far below 2008 levels. A July 2011 Harris Poll shows more and more people skimping on everything from electronic goodies to haircuts. Personal savings rates are up. And with down payments on mortgages back at 20% levels, it's hard to afford a home, let alone use it as a credit card to buy boats and flat screen TVs.

Business strategists increasingly recognize that not only are 95% of their potential consumers living outside U.S. borders, they are living in high-growth developing countries -- places like Asia and Latin America (where the World Bank forecasts 4.5% economic growth this year) and Africa (where total household spending already exceeds that of India). Tapping into those markets will help produce needed jobs.

“The Lake Oswego schools could be losing their reputation as the best in the state”

"Globally competitive students will need to be bilingual when they graduate from high school, and that school districts that do not at least offer immersion programs as an option will be seen as offering a “second rate” education"

A Lake Oswego parent has written a letter to the editor of the Lake Oswego Review about the Lake Oswego School District’s decision not to proceed now with a Mandarin immersion program, fearing that “the Lake Oswego schools could be losing their reputation as the best in the state.” I would add that what is true for the Lake Oswego School District is true for all school districts across the state. The parent, Martin L. Jacobs, writes in part (here):

My concern is that the Lake Oswego schools could be losing their reputation as the best in the state. Other nearby school systems are now offering immersion programs, while we dither and delay. First “we don’t have the time,” then “we don’t have the funds.” These are excuses. As a businessman, I know that you make time to do important things. No excuses! After vacillating, the school board has now approved a Spanish immersion program. They found the time and money to do that. A good decision.

I don’t understand, however, of not approving the Chinese program as well. I understand that China has created a program worldwide to help teach Mandarin. The program will supply and pay for a qualified teacher, contribute up to $10,000 to start the program, supply the books required and supply the curriculum. In effect, (it would) contribute almost $100,000.

I understand that school systems around the country are benefiting from the program and they are assured that there is no propaganda involved.

I have read in the Review that there are parents who are considering moving their children to other school systems to enable them to attain this language training. If this happens, Lake Oswego schools will lose state revenue ($6,500 per student), and the high reputation it has had over the years. This could adversely affect students’ acceptance to colleges of their choice, income from the state and house values in our city.

On the other hand, if we have the programs, they would attract transfers into the system, increasing state support and maintain real estate values.

Lake Oswego could add Mandarin immersion at little or no cost. Why delay, fall behind other school systems and penalize our children? Add Chinese immersion to next fall’s program. General Mills had a slogan at one time that applies: “Eventually, why not now?”

My own views from my June, 2011 post “How far behind schools in Utah does the Lake Oswego School District want to be?” (here):

My own view is that, increasingly, globally competitive students will need to be bilingual when they graduate from high school, and that school districts that do not at least offer immersion programs as an option will be seen as offering a “second rate” education. The State of Utah, for example, is mainstreaming foreign language immersion programs, adding ten to fifteen schools each year with Spanish, French, or Mandarin immersion programs. How far behind schools in Utah does the Lake Oswego School District want to be?

Student evaluation of teachers in PPS

Student representatives in Portland Public Schools are working towards regular surveys for students to evaluate teachers. Henry Li, the student elected by the Superintendent’s Student Advisory Council (the SuperSAC) to sit on the PPS Board, reports to the PPS Board (here, about fifth page):

….. Work with the PPS teacher evaluation committee has enjoyed the most progress. We have – after much deliberation – figured out exactly the changes we want to see occur are. These efforts are being undertaken as a SuperSAC group with a representative from the Multnomah Youth Commission’s education committee.

We have assembled a preliminary survey for students in community comprehensive high schools to take at the end of both semesters. These surveys are not putative [punitive] in nature – high school administrators will not see them for the time being. Teachers would be required to give these surveys to every student in every class. The goal (as I’ve said before) is to help teachers improve. Teachers would be encouraged to use student feedback surveys as evidence and support when they conference with administrators.

The questions in the survey are modified forms of selected rubric standards found in the

Handbook for Professional Growth and Evaluation. No one than the students themselves can answer standards such as “teacher is responsive to meeting individual needs of students” better. Our next step is to take our survey to teachers at our schools to gather their responses in data form. We hope to emerge from the PAT/PPS evaluation committee meeting in March with a timeline for implementation…..

This is good. I support regular student and parent evaluation of teachers.

“Mandarin Overtakes English as Hong Kong’s Second Language”

From the Wall Street Journal’s China Real Time Report “Mandarin Overtakes English as Hong Kong’s Second Language” (here):

…..Hong Kong’s latest official census report reveals Mandarin has eclipsed English as the language second most commonly spoken by residents of the special administrative region.

The proportion of Hong Kong residents who report they can speak Mandarin – referred to in mainland China as Putonghua, or “the common language” — clocks in at 48%, according to census figures released this week, narrowly surpassing the 46% of Hong Kongers who can speak English. In 2001, the last time Hong Kong conducted a census, only a third of Hong Kong residents reported being able to speak Mandarin….

…..Hong Kong residents — 96% of whom speak Cantonese, according to the census — may be speaking more Mandarin, but many appear to have conflicted emotions about it. A survey conducted by Hong Kong’s Center for Communication Research found that the number of Hong Kongers who describe themselves as feeling “proud” of Mandarin dropped to 29% in 2010, down from a high of 34% in 2006.

Video: Rep. Patrick Sheehan reports on 2011 China trip

Oregon State Representative Patrick Sheehan reports on his 2011 legislative trip to China.

"Our Oregon business leaders have us on the wrong educational reform path"

Do not our Oregon business leaders understand that, within the lifetime of a student today, China's economy may grow to be two or three times the size of the US economy?

Our Oregon business leaders have us on the wrong educational reform path. Perhaps they are just too provincial? Perhaps they don’t understand the changes taking place in the global economy? That’s hard to believe, I know, with companies like Nike and Intel. But how else can one explain why they do not support or advocate for stronger foreign language programs (especially more Mandarin immersion programs) and high school study abroad programs (again, especially to China).

Just for the historical record (and, from my perspective, totally lacking in strategic vision),  six Oregon business leaders supported other educational efforts recently in Salem. From the Oregonian article “Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber invites business leaders for press conference; House Republicans show up, too” by Michelle Cole (here):

Flanked by representatives from six Oregon business groups at a Capitol news conference, Gov. John Kitzhaber urged lawmakers to move on health care and education reforms still stuck in legislative committees.

The House is poised this morning to vote on a bill setting up coordinated care organizations for people on the Oregon Health Plan. But a second health care reform bill, advancing a health insurance exchange for individuals and small businesses has been sidelined. There also has been no action on two education reform bills that the governor -- and much of the state's business community -- wants.

Pat Reiten, Pacific Power president and chairman of the Oregon Business Plan steering committee, echoed the governor's remarks.

"We've simply come too far to let these fail," he said.

"U.S. Needs Chinese Partners in Asia Century”

I agree with Tom Barnett that economic cooperation with China (if they remain willing) is the best scenario for the future of the United States. He writes in his World Politics Review article “The New Rules: U.S. Needs Chinese Partner in Asia Century” (here):

If the next century is going to be a Pacific Century -- and there is ample evidence of this macro trend -- then America will have to be able to tap into Asia’s great savings pool to finance its long-term economic growth. That savings pool, decades in the making, has seen China cleverly insert itself at the top of an Asian assembly chain that achieved a massive transfer of wealth as part of an enduring trade surplus with America. That transaction, along with the undergirding collective security we provided Asia as external military Leviathan, constituted America’s greatest foreign policy success -- and foreign aid success -- ever, helping to lift hundreds of millions of impoverished Asians into the ranks of an emerging, and even ascendant, global middle class.

That Asia-centric global middle class binds America’s economic future to Asia’s economic present. Our business community understands this intrinsically; our political elite does not.

Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric, is known for insisting that you can’t succeed as a business in the global economy unless you succeed in China. I would add that you cannot succeed in China unless you’re Chinese. That’s the reality of a rising world power intent on raising its own national corporate champions -- Deng Xiaoping echoing, and updating, Alexander Hamilton.

So how do you square that circle? You get yourself some Chinese partners, as General Motors recently did with Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation to take on Volkswagen and Tata and Honda in global markets. General Electric is doing the same with China’s AVIC aviation corporation to take on Airbus and Boeing in global markets. And now just this week we receive word of DreamWorks Animation tying up with a Chinese media firm.

By partnering with Chinese firms, these companies are positioning themselves for success as globally integrated enterprises, former IBM CEO Sam Palmisano’s term for the next-generation successor to traditional multinational corporations that still cling to their home nations.

But when it comes to America’s own markets, although we are seeing a great uptick in Chinese foreign direct investment (FDI) into distressed U.S. companies, the baseline is still tiny relative to the money China is investing globally. On an annual basis, we still haven’t cracked the $10 billion mark in terms of Chinese FDI. In contrast, former U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers, in concert with leading CEOs of U.S. companies, suggested that America needs something more on the order of $250 billion of Chinese FDI annually for several years to jumpstart our economy.

Sadly, in Oregon, our leadership does not recognize the importance of expanding Mandarin and study abroad in China programs as important components of not only learning to cooperate with the Chinese but in attracting Chinese investment to Oregon. We seem to have a governor clueless about the global economy and a legislature, as Steve Duin wrote “that can't work itself out of a plastic bag.” (here)

“Jeremy Lin craze is welcome news at Nike, Adidas”

There is a Jeremy Lin connection to Oregon. He’s under contract with Nike and Adidas sells his NBA jerseys.

But first, China is a big, target market for both Nike and Adidas (unlike for Oregon's educational and economic development leaders who refuse to expand Mandarin and study abroad in China programs). From Allan Brettman’s Oregonian article “Jeremy Lin craze is welcome news at Nike, Adidas” (here):

…. Lin's appeal in China doesn't hurt.

"The popularity of basketball in China surpasses all other sports," Teague said. "And this example of Jeremy blowing up for the Knicks is just one more additional fuel to the fire of the passion of basketball in China."

In its last fiscal year, Nike recorded $2 billion in sales in China and has said it plans to double that by 2013. "Certainly it's a big opportunity in China," Parker said of the Lin phenomenon.

Adidas also has targeted China for significant growth in the company's so-called Route 2015 plan. Last year, the company's Adidas, Reebok and other brands had an estimated $1.3 billion in sales. And it, like Nike, has said it hopes to dramatically increase those numbers in the years ahead….

And, Lin has already appeared in China for Nike:
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….But Parker said Lin will be making a Nike-affiliated trip to China this summer as well as to Taiwan. He made a trip last summer to Taiwan, offering basketball clinics in two cities.

Could a Jeremy Lin signature basketball shoe be in the works? Or a Lin line of clothes?

"One of the questions is, 'what are you going to do in terms of product?'" Parker acknowledged. "I think you'll see more things happening there. I mean, there's a real interest in him and in his story and I think that creates opportunities for him and for Nike." …..

And, relating to the above video:

…. His current shoe is the Zoom HyperFuse. And Lin, who grew up in Palo Alto, Calif., says in a Nike webcast interview that his favorite basketball shoe of all time is the Nike Shox BB4 and his favorite shoe to "wear around" is a Jordan Brand Air Force One.

After Monday's night's home game at Madison Square Garden, Lin's street clothes included what appeared to white canvas deck shoes with a blue Swoosh on the side. When he opens the trunk of his car in a video that's been popular on YouTube, he chooses from among six pairs of shoes to wear into a gym: all carry a Swoosh…..