America’s socioeconomic strength and health are why we would be wise to pay more attention to the headlines about the lack of trust in the U.S. than to the alarmist headlines about the international education scores known as PISA (Program for International Student Assessment). Let’s start with the 2012 PISA scores that were just released in early December. A 3 December 2013 Wall Street Journal article titled “Students Slip in Global Tests” states that American 15-year-olds “fell further in the rankings, reviving a debate about America’s ability to compete in the global economy.” Unfortunately, American students have never been the top scorers since international tests began in the mid-1960s (see Diane Ravitch’s National Standards in American Education: A Citizen’s Guide for an overview of international tests). Fortunately, while the U.S. educational system does not produce the best test takers in the world, the system has produced citizens with the creativity and inventiveness to become the world’s leading entrepreneurs and innovators when seen through traditional economic statistics and patents granted. As a matter of fact, in a widely cited 2007 article titled “Are International Tests Worth Anything?” Keith Baker clearly shows that “the higher a nation’s test score 40 years ago, the worse its economic performance” has been in terms of per capita gross domestic product. He counter-intuitively demonstrates that economic strength is sacrificed when a country is focused on achieving the world’s top test scores. Baker concludes his argument by stating:
“a certain level of educational attainment, as reflected in test scores, provides a platform for launching national success, but once that platform is reached, other factors become more important than further gains in test scores. Indeed, once the platform is reached, it may be bad policy to pursue further gains in test scores because focusing on the scores diverts attention, effort, and resources away from other factors that are important determinants of national success.”
Paul Tough (in his book How Children Succeed) and others have highlighted grit, curiosity, creativity and character as the “other factors that are important determinants” of success. In short, the PISA rankings and “America’s ability to compete in the global economy” have nothing to do with each other.
A factor that does play a role in America’s economic vitality is highlighted in the 7 December 2013 article “Why Americans are so Angry” of The Economist: trust. Although the author convincingly shows that the United States is not yet a “low-trust” country, the article outlines how America’s political and racial divisiveness are moving it solidly in that direction. While many scholars such as Robert Putnam and Francis Fukuyama have explained the important role that trust or “social capital” plays in the political and socioeconomic development of a country, Paul Zak has recently shown in The Moral Molecule how the economics of a country are literally intertwined with the biology of trust of its people. Without trust, civil society withers and without civil society, a country’s political and socioeconomic health deteriorates. America the melting pot, where people were fused together to make this country stronger, is slowly shape shifting into something much more divisive and cold—an ice tray—which would make our country more fragile and breakable.
What is the “loom” (threat) of today’s weave and what is its “thread” of hope? While the “loom” of today’s weave is that trust between Americans may be slipping, an educational system that provides a core level of academic achievement while developing character, creativity, curiosity and grit in every student can act as the “thread” that unites us in our own success.
Chris is Professor of Political Science at Western Connecticut State University, a Fulbright Scholar, Director of the Kathwari Honors Program, and founding Director of the Center for Compassion, Creativity & Innovation. He is also the author of "The Compassionate Achiever: How Helping Others Fuels Success" (HarperOne, 2017).
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