Education Related Parts of US President Obama's State of the Union 2014 Speech

Given below are extracts related to education from US president Obama's State of the Union 2014 address, http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/01/28/president-barack-obamas-state-union-address, and comments:

[Please note that the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license does NOT apply to this post.]

• "Today in America, a teacher spent extra time with a student who needed it, and did her part to lift America’s graduation rate to its highest level in more than three decades." [Ravi: This is the first sentence of his speech (after mentioning the persons the speech is addressed to). That shows how much importance the US president gives to teaching.]

• "Taking a page from that playbook, the White House just organized a College Opportunity Summit where already, 150 universities, businesses, and nonprofits have made concrete commitments to reduce inequality in access to higher education – and help every hardworking kid go to college and succeed when they get to campus."

• "We know where to start: the best measure of opportunity is access to a good job." [Ravi: I gave this extract as later on we see the importance given to education and training to make a person/student ready for that "good job".]

• "We also have the chance, right now, to beat other countries in the race for the next wave of high-tech manufacturing jobs.  My administration has launched two hubs for high-tech manufacturing in Raleigh and Youngstown, where we’ve connected businesses to research universities that can help America lead the world in advanced technologies.  Tonight, I’m announcing we’ll launch six more this year.  Bipartisan bills in both houses could double the number of these hubs and the jobs they create.  So get those bills to my desk and put more Americans back to work." [Ravi: The link between research universities and the high-tech economy is clearly recognized by the US president.]

• "We know that the nation that goes all-in on innovation today will own the global economy tomorrow.  This is an edge America cannot surrender.  Federally-funded research helped lead to the ideas and inventions behind Google and smartphones.  That’s why Congress should undo the damage done by last year’s cuts to basic research so we can unleash the next great American discovery – whether it’s vaccines that stay ahead of drug-resistant bacteria, or paper-thin material that’s stronger than steel.  And let’s pass a patent reform bill that allows our businesses to stay focused on innovation, not costly, needless litigation." [Ravi: No wonder governments are willing to provide lot of funds for hi-tech. research that delivers on innovative tech. that the world (market) needs.]

• "The ideas I’ve outlined so far can speed up growth and create more jobs.  But in this rapidly-changing economy, we have to make sure that every American has the skills to fill those jobs.

The good news is, we know how to do it.  Two years ago, as the auto industry came roaring back, Andra Rush opened up a manufacturing firm in Detroit.  She knew that Ford needed parts for the best-selling truck in America, and she knew how to make them.  She just needed the workforce.  So she dialed up what we call an American Job Center – places where folks can walk in to get the help or training they need to find a new job, or better job.  She was flooded with new workers.  And today, Detroit Manufacturing Systems has more than 700 employees.

What Andra and her employees experienced is how it should be for every employer – and every job seeker.  So tonight, I’ve asked Vice President Biden to lead an across-the-board reform of America’s training programs to make sure they have one mission: train Americans with the skills employers need, and match them to good jobs that need to be filled right now.  That means more on-the-job training, and more apprenticeships that set a young worker on an upward trajectory for life.  It means connecting companies to community colleges that can help design training to fill their specific needs.  And if Congress wants to help, you can concentrate funding on proven programs that connect more ready-to-work Americans with ready-to-be-filled jobs."

[Ravi: Clear focus on providing specific training/education to meet jobs available in industry. And the mention of community college in that context. I think India needs a good vocational training/education setup which offers a 2 year community college diploma/degree equivalent to students passing out of XIIth standard (which I think is equivalent to K-12 of the US). Can Information Technology education focusing on non-critical (IT) applications development be one area for such educaton/training? I don't know enough of vocational education in India to be able to answer the question but I think it is worth thinking about.]

• "Five years ago, we set out to change the odds for all our kids.  We worked with lenders to reform student loans, and today, more young people are earning college degrees than ever before.  Race to the Top, with the help of governors from both parties, has helped states raise expectations and performance.  Teachers and principals in schools from Tennessee to Washington, D.C. are making big strides in preparing students with skills for the new economy – problem solving, critical thinking, science, technology, engineering, and math.  Some of this change is hard.  It requires everything from more challenging curriculums and more demanding parents to better support for teachers and new ways to measure how well our kids think, not how well they can fill in a bubble on a test.  But it’s worth it – and it’s working." [Ravi: Full marks to the US government for trying to fix the problem. It would be so great if top Indian education policy makers also speak up publicly on such matters instead of it being a closed door and opaque license-raj education policy-making setup.]

• "Research shows that one of the best investments we can make in a child’s life is high-quality early education.  Last year, I asked this Congress to help states make high-quality pre-K available to every four year-old.  As a parent as well as a President, I repeat that request tonight. But in the meantime, thirty states have raised pre-k funding on their own.  They know we can’t wait.  So just as we worked with states to reform our schools, this year, we’ll invest in new partnerships with states and communities across the country in a race to the top for our youngest children.  And as Congress decides what it’s going to do, I’m going to pull together a coalition of elected officials, business leaders, and philanthropists willing to help more kids access the high-quality pre-K they need."

• "Last year, I also pledged to connect 99 percent of our students to high-speed broadband over the next four years.  Tonight, I can announce that with the support of the FCC and companies like Apple, Microsoft, Sprint, and Verizon, we’ve got a down payment to start connecting more than 15,000 schools and twenty million students over the next two years, without adding a dime to the deficit." [Ravi: Awesome contribution by US companies - without adding a dime to the deficit!]

• "We’re working to redesign high schools and partner them with colleges and employers that offer the real-world education and hands-on training that can lead directly to a job and career.  We’re shaking up our system of higher education to give parents more information, and colleges more incentives to offer better value, so that no middle-class kid is priced out of a college education." [Ravi: Terrific!!!]

• "We’re offering millions the opportunity to cap their monthly student loan payments to ten percent of their income, and I want to work with Congress to see how we can help even more Americans who feel trapped by student loan debt.  And I’m reaching out to some of America’s leading foundations and corporations on a new initiative to help more young men of color facing tough odds stay on track and reach their full potential."

----

Ravi: It is so wonderful to see the top boss of a country, in a yearly stock-taking and future-direction address, give so much importance to education, and have a clear focus on education that imparts the skills the youth need in these job-wise challenging times. In contrast, in India, most of what I read about speeches made by top ministers and education policy makers is about research. I don't recall coming across any speech in recent times by any top Indian higher education policy maker about teaching Indian students useful skills that will help them get a decent job!

BTW I saw the video of the speech as well. If you would like to do so here's the youtube video link I viewed, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hed1nP9X7pI, 1 hr. 29 min. 07 sec.

Oct. 2013 Economist article on Problems with scientific research - How science goes wrong

Last updated on January 29th 2014

Here's an interesting Oct. 2013 Economist article, Problems with scientific research - How science goes wrong.

Some notes and comments of mine:

The article mentions that some research groups of a biotech firm and a drug company could reproduce/repeat only a small portion of important research papers.

The number of scientists has increased from a few hundred thousand in the 1950s to 6-7 million which has impacted quality of research. [Ravi: That's an increase of over ten times (presuming that few is less than 6). Add "Publish or perish", which the article goes on to mention, and we can see the factors behind large number of  papers of dubious quality being published as "research".]

"Nowadays verification (the replication of other people’s results) does little to advance a researcher’s career. And without verification, dubious findings live on to mislead." [Ravi: Vital point - I did not know about this/realize this. But, as I think about it, I don't think I have heard too much about Computer Science or Information Technology papers challenging the findings/results of other papers. But then I do not read academic publications typically - I usually get to know of research articles in the academic/professional area of my interest ("practice of software development" in academia and industry) from others.]

The article casts some doubt on the effectiveness of the (academic) peer review process and gives an example where many medical journal reviewers failed to catch deliberately inserted errors even though the reviewers were aware they were being tested. [Ravi: I am so happy to see the Economist criticize the academic peer review process. I have undergone and participated (as a reviewer) in fair amount of fairly decent peer review in the software industry of designs, specifications as well as code. In contrast, most of the very little peer review that I have experienced in academic papers can be categorized as decent, or rather biased (in my view), or very superficial. I certainly am not that impressed by the little academic peer review process that I have experienced. There is a great lack of transparency in the review process which, to my mind, allows a reviewer to be unaccountable for his/her review remarks. In contrast, in the industry peer reviews that I have been involved with, the detailed review remarks were available for many interested people to view, and sometimes even archived along with various versions of the input documents/code. One could see the effect of the review process by examining the pre and post versions of the documents/code (with sometimes multiple round of reviews till the document/code met the required quality). The reviewer was accountable for his/her review remarks - I mean, outrageous review remarks could easily be passed on to neutral knowledge-authority figures who could question the reviewer.]

It suggests monitoring of research in "virtual notebooks" and making data available to other researchers. [Ravi: From what I have seen of academic research I think the fear of somebody else stealing one's ideas and techniques, and beating one to the research publication may come in the way of transparent reporting of research work prior to paper publication. But, in many cases, data can certainly be shared once the paper is published. However, such data (including software design and code for CS and IT work) sharing does not seem to be required or the norm (there are some exceptions, I am given to understand). Without the data it becomes very hard for others to verify the results. So I think some people can get away with making false claims about results in their research publications.]

It suggests improving of the peer review process or its replacement by "post-publication evaluation in the form of appended comments" and states that the latter has worked well for some fields in the recent past. [Ravi: I think review remarks should be published along with pre and post versions of the paper. Further, when the reviewers are willing to do so, they should mention their name as well and get credit for their review remarks (or get criticized for poor review remarks). In my experience in the software industry, reviews were not blind - yes, that led to some discomfort at times but one got over it. After all the objective is to use the experience of a knowledgeable group of people to improve specifications, design and code. Part of the process of maturity as a software development practitioner is to learn to not only accept good criticism but value it as it contributes to improving one's work and catching flaws early (thereby preventing or controlling the damage these flaws cause/can cause).]

"The false trails laid down by shoddy research are an unforgivable barrier to understanding." [Ravi: This last sentence of the article is a strong one, which seems to be correct. I guess the right word is pollution. Shoddy research papers pollute research publications with the good research papers getting mixed up with the bad. And, if I have understood matters correctly, these publications are viewed as capturing the state of the frontiers of knowledge of various streams. That makes it a serious problem.]

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Later I started going through the comments on the article webpage. Some of them are rather shocking but some suggest solutions. I think it is really worthwhile for those who have not read up on such matters (like me) to have a look at the comments to get a seemingly truthful inside-view of the state of science research (publications) today. I particularly liked the following comments:

• CnKQ7pSia6Oct 17th 2013, 19:30 [Details of an alleged bad medical science experience]
• chriffOct 17th 2013, 20:58 [Short allegation of bad science involving a Nobel laureate]
• OhioOct 17th 2013, 16:31 [This one suggests a solution for part of the problem (validation)]
• HangyaOct 18th 2013, 15:24 [This one comes across to me as a balanced and wise comment]

Some Serious Dangers of For-Profit Education Schools (Colleges) For Poor and Naive Students

A US based academic sent me the following recent article link, “I feel like I was set up to fail”: Inside a for-profit college nightmare, http://www.salon.com/2014/01/25/inside_story_of_a_for_profit_college_nightmare/.

I think the article highlights some serious dangers that for-profit education schools/colleges/systems have, especially for poor and naive students. While I am not saying that for-profit education systems should not be considered at all in India, I would like to humbly suggest to those who deal with education policy making to please go through the article (unless they have already done so) and put in appropriate safeguards in education policy to prevent such nightmarish scenarios for students in any for-profit education system in India.

Here are some points about the article:

• The student (Jaqueta Cherry) seems to have been targeted and lured by the for-profit college by a promise of landing "a professional job working in computers".
• She dropped out of the courses and now is saddled with thousands of dollars of federal student loan debt.
• "For-profit schools use a business model that feasts on federal student aid." [Note: In the US, the term schools is many times used to refer to higher education colleges and universities too, which seems to be the case here.]
• Leads i.e. info. about prospective students are sold by some firms specializing in "lead generation" which uses sophisticated techniques and algorithms to identify prospects from digital footprints on the Internet.
• Very significant component of revenue of most for-profit schools come from US government aid.
• California Attorney General Kamala Harris has filed a lawsuit against Corinthian Colleges Inc. (parent company of the university Jacqueta had enrolled in). From http://oag.ca.gov/system/files/attachments/press_releases/Complaint,%20filed%20stamped_0.pdf, (a 37 page document):

• "CCI is selling these expensive programs to students throughout California, many of whom head single parent families and have annual incomes that are near the federal poverty line ($19,530 for a three-person household). CCI targets this demographic, which it describes in internal company documents as composed of "isolated," "impatient," individuals with ''low selfesteem," who have "few people in their lives who care about them" and who are "stuck" and "unable to see and plan well for future," through aggressive and persistent internet and telemarketing campaigns and through television ads on daytime shows like Jerry Springer and Maury Povich."

• The lawsuit attempts to hold "CCI accountable for violating California law by misrepresenting job placement rates to students, misrepresenting job placement rates to investors, advertising for programs that it does not offer, ...".

A previous blog post, For-profit college in California, USA, faces lawsuit from Attorney General for Systematic Deception of Students, is related to this topic. 

Think India Education Debate on Indian National English TV Channel

I saw a debate on education on CNN-IBN, a National English language News TV channel of India, around 10 days ago. It was hosted by Think India, a think tank. An earlier blog post, http://eklavyasai.blogspot.in/2013/12/suggestions-to-improve-cs-it-education.html, has more info. about Think India and my mails to them.

The topics covered in the discussion were on the lines of the action points listed on its web page for education, http://thinkindia.in.com/pm-agenda/?topic-name=education-skills. Interestingly the debate is available on Think India's youtube channel. Here's the debate link, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hB8F4c-EJbA, 39 min. 09 sec., published on Jan. 11, 2014.

I felt it worthwhile to make an edited transcript of parts of the debate that interested me and post it as a comment on the above youtube page (under my name - Ravi S. Iyer). Some readers may find it convenient to quickly browse through this part-transcript.

The initial part of my comment is, "I am very happy to see Network 18 host such a debate on the vital topic of education on national TV. Hopefully such shows will lead to more Indians getting involved with understanding the rather opaque education administration and policy making systems in India, and ensuring that adequate and suitable education reform happens."

The background of the speakers/panelists are as follows:

The moderator of this show, "Raghav Bahl is an Indian businessman best known for his ownership of several television channels, including TV18 India. He is founding/Controlling Shareholder & Managing Director of Network18 group.", http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raghav_Bahl.

"Dr. Madhav Chavan is a co-founder and CEO-President of Pratham, an organization that reaches 3 million primary school age children in India every year.", http://pratham.org/links-3.aspx.

Manish Sabharwal is an entrepreneur and co-founder of TeamLease, India's largest temporary employment company. Here's a Forbes India August 2013 article by Manish Sabharwal, Why the God of Jobs Doesn't Smile on India.

"Ashish Dhawan is the Founder and CEO of Central Square Foundation (CSF)." "Ashish is an MBA with distinction from Harvard University and a dual bachelor's (BS/BA) holder with Magna Cum Laude honours from Yale University. He is on the India Advisory Board of Harvard and a member of Yale's Development Council.", http://www.centralsquarefoundation.org/team/. Vision of CSF: "All children in India, regardless of their social and economic status, will get a high quality school education that prepares them to be responsible and productive citizens.", http://centralsquarefoundation.org/mission/.

Harish Srivastava was with the Prime Minister's Office and the Planning Commission and now is COO of Center for Civil Society, a prominent think tank, http://ccs.in/team.

The CEO of Think India, "Dhiraj Nayyar trained as an economist at the Universities of Delhi, Oxford and Cambridge.", http://thinkindia.in.com/expert/dhirajnayyarexpert/.

I also thought I should summarize the edited part-transcript in this blog post and have given it below.

For-profit institutions at all levels of education
The view of most speakers was that many educational institutions are already for-profit but done in a back-door way as for-profit education is not legal (in India). This back-door situation makes it difficult for genuine education entrepreneurs including teachers to start their own educational institutions. Getting capital for this capital intensive area is also another challenge for entrepreneurs due to the current laws. Making for-profit legal would open up the field for education entrepreneurs and investors. Consumer protection laws should apply for these for-profit institutions. Also, taxes should be paid by them.

India has seen liberalization in the past 22 years in many fields (leading to those fields reforming). But the education sector has not had any reform yet. Education still lives in the license-raj era.


Need for standardized assessments (measuring learning outcomes)
A speaker said that 60 countries in the world including almost every OECD country uses standardized assessments. Why not India? The emphasis in education in India has been on inputs like buildings and hiring teachers but very little emphasis is on learning outcomes. Learning outcome should become front and centre in the education system.


Higher education - single higher education regulator
We should have a single consistent higher education regulator like we have one single regulator for stocks across the country - SEBI (http://www.sebi.gov.in/). Currently different states of India have different regulations for education. Futher there are various professions like medicine and law with their councils which are under separate acts of parliament. The next prime minister should get together all these (stakeholders) and create a single consistent higher education regulator. Different fields like technical and medicine can be managed by different sections of this single body.

UGC (the key higher education regulator) both funds and regulates universities. This mixing of funding and regulation should be avoided.


Higher education - complete deregulation of distance and online education
Current laws in India make it very difficult for online education providers operating across various states of the country. To meet the goal of college enrollment going up to 30%, online education and distance education are vital. So these fields should be completely deregulated. Having such open education systems will help the deprived more than the others.


Higher education - allowing foreign universities to set up campuses in India
We should incentivize Indian companies to invest in universities. And we should also allow foreign universities to set up campuses in India. That will help in Indian students paying (investing) the money in the Indian campuses of foreign universities instead of paying that money abroad. Foreign university campuses will be few as compared to the total university campuses in India and these foreign university campuses will act as lighthouses for quality/be a benchmark for others.


Higher education - raise fees of government-funded universities
Many universities in India get only 3% of their budget from student fees. This (causes) a drain on govt. coffers and there is an issue of student accountability. If the student pays larger fees he/she will demand better service. Need-based scholarship and student loans should be provided.


Vocational Training
Young people are very concerned about employability of the education they undergo. There is a large gap globally, but especially so in India, between what students study and what employers want. There are strong differences between higher education system and skills (education/training) system. National Vocational Qualification Framework (NVQF) is caught up between two ministries - labour and HRD (which handles education). NVQF should be passed. Associate degrees - 2 year programs - should be introduced "which are not normal degrees on a diet but vocational training on streroids".


Apprenticeship
India has only 3 lakh (3 hundred thousand) apprentices, whereas Germany has 3 million, Japan 10 million and China 20 million. The 1961 Apprenticeship act should be rebooted. It will be easy to do. We could have 10 million apprentices in 18 months time and thereby have a lot of young people in productive jobs.

--- end summary ---

Some days ago I had added the following comment to the Think India web page on education, http://thinkindia.in.com/pm-agenda/?topic-name=education-skills, (under my name):

My specific interest area in this context is Indian Computer Science and Information Technology Higher Education. Perhaps some of my suggestions may hold good for other technical education areas as well. The crux of the problem, as I see it, is that, usually, the teachers are not practitioners. In other words a CS or IT academic, usually, does not design or develop software, and unfortunately UGC rules do not provide specific incentives for the academics to be good practitioners. Instead the incentives are heavily tilted towards research publications.

If the medical profession expects its teachers to be medical practitioners, why can't the software development teachers be software development practitioners? Why doesn't UGC and AICTE create career growth incentives for Indian CS & IT academics to be software development practitioners as well as teachers. Sure, they can be researchers as well but not at the cost of lack of knowledge about the practice of software development.

--- end comment ----

There is another web page on discussion, http://thinkindia.in.com/topic-discussion/?topic-name=education-skills, which (currently) deals with the question, "Should foreign universities be allowed to set up campuses in India?" A few days ago I had added the following comment there:

I think they should allow foreign universities to set up campuses in India. Nothing like competition from foreign organizations to stir up Indian organizations to excellence. Just look at how competitive and efficient Indian banks became once they had to compete with foreign banks. But some foreign higher education institutions are good and some bad. The attorney general of California, USA, has filed a lawsuit in October 2013 against a for-profit higher education US company with over 100 campuses in North America alleging misrepresentation of job placement rates, false advertising etc.! So Indian HRD ministry and higher education regulators like UGC and AICTE should permit only good foreign higher ed. institutions to enter the country and further keep them under observation to ensure that they do not indulge in any unhealthy practices.

--- end comment ----

For-profit college in California, USA, faces lawsuit from Attorney General for Systematic Deception of Students

I am quite impressed by US governments' mechanisms and efforts to catch and punish higher education institutions engaged in fraud. Here's an October 2013 report of California Attorney General suing a for-profit college company for deceptive practices, "Major For-Profit College Chain Systematically Deceived Students: Attorney General", http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/10/corinthian-colleges-for-profit-lawsuit_n_4081000.html.

Some small extracts and notes from the article:

'California's attorney general filed a lawsuit Thursday accusing a for-profit college company of misrepresenting job placement rates, false advertising and other deceptive practices to lure low-income residents to take out student loans to attend its schools.'
...
The article quoted Kamala Harris, Attorney General, of California, USA, saying, "Corinthian College was serving not as an educator but as a predator of some of the most vulnerable people in our community".
...
The college company which is reported to operate over 100 campuses in North America as well as a few online programs, disputes the charges of the Attorney General.

--- end extracts and notes ---

I have not heard of any lawsuits of this sort at all, in India. I think fake colleges in India can get away with anything, even offer fake PhD degrees, without anybody really punishing them. At the most, the college owners will close down the college (and perhaps open another one with a different name).

Who is there to protect Indian students and their parents from getting trapped by similar fake colleges in India? Not only do they lose money and precious years of youth - just imagine the shock and disappointment the young student will have when he/she realises that his/her education is almost worthless. Perhaps some youth may never recover from such a horrific psychological blow. [BTW there are many good educational institutions in India, and, of course, USA has world class educational institutions. But there are some fakes too - that seems to be the inescapable reality of higher education today.]

India should have similar laws/mechanisms to punish fake colleges, which are rigorously implemented.