Seattle School Board President Goes to Korea

Our school board president visited Korea recently and came back with a glowing report on the educational system in Korea. Many of us would like to know first, why Korea? Secondly, whose idea was this? And finally, did we get to pay for this junket?

What I found even more interesting than those questions are the comments that were made about President DeBell's description of the educational system in Korea by Koreans who now live in Seattle.

What I will do is first post President DeBell's thoughts as seen in the Seattle Times editorial. Then, following that will be the comments from Koreans who now live in Seattle.


Korea's lessons for Seattle Public Schools and beyond

Korea's educational success offers some lessons to U.S. schools, writes Seattle School Board President Michael DeBell. There are some differences but Korea is reflecting back what No Child Left Behind should look like.

By Michael DeBell

IN 60 years, the Republic of Korea has gone from a poor agrarian country devastated by war to an economic and educational powerhouse. South Korean students place at the very top of international comparisons in math and science and their 96 percent high-school graduation rate is the best in the world.

Meanwhile, the United States is in the bottom third of international comparisons for industrialized countries and our 70 percent graduation rate has been stagnant for years.

How does Korea do it? The recently completed International Study Mission of the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce provided an opportunity to tour elementary schools, poke around high schools and universities and speak with Korean educators, students and parents. The conclusion: Universal educational success is possible but is neither cheap nor easy, requires sustained commitment and more time and effort from students and educators.

Our visit focused on Seattle's sister city Daejeon, located in a pleasant river valley and surrounded by forested hills. It prides itself on being a research and innovation hub. American-educated Kim Shin Ho runs the school system and, like all superintendents in Korea, is elected in municipal voting. The elementary school we visited looked remarkably similar to Seattle's International Schools, flags and cultures of the world prominently displayed.

Instruction in a second language, primarily English, begins in third grade and continues through high school. Courses on morality and character begin in second grade. Class size is 25 students, all of whom treat their teachers with great respect. Standardized tests do not figure prominently, emphasis is on grades in coursework. A teacher's paramount responsibility is to move all students successfully to the next grade level in all subjects. Teachers are well paid and enjoy high social status. They can voluntarily join a professional association but have no union we would recognize. I was told that 20 university students pursue a teaching career for every one eventually hired.

Korean families seem universally to value education and the Korean state has built its economic development on a technologically sophisticated, highly educated work force. Korea began with Confucian traditions and the stark reality that human capital is it's only important national resource. Add the constant threat from North Korea and intense national pride and you get incredible focus, broad consensus and an inclusive vision of national progress.

The real secret to Korean success, however, is probably the simplest factor of all. Their students study more hours than the competition. Not only is their school year 200-plus days (compared with Washington state's 180), most students also attend private tutoring classes in the afternoon and evening.

The hogwans or private after-school programs are a source of debate in Korea as they claim an increasing share of Korean childhood. Along with pride in their educational success, Koreans are beginning to worry about too much stress on their children.

Our delegation was deeply interested in education, especially in what we could apply upon our return to Seattle. We are culturally and ethnically diverse, Korea is quite homogeneous. We have the many fault lines of a mature democracy while Korea has youthful nationalism.

Still, I believe these insights apply: Teachers are at the center of the system, respected, rewarded, consistently high quality and professional. It takes a longer school year and more hours to successfully educate all children, as true in the Harlem Children's Zone as the Republic of Korea. Every family and neighborhood can reinforce the importance of the schoolhouse. High expectations and lofty targets must be backed with sustained tax dollars and political will.

Korea is reflecting back to us what "No Child Left Behind" actually looks like. We should pay attention.

OK, that sounds good. Now, let's hear from two Koreans who know the system better than any outside would.

From Seoul to Seattle

(My previous comment was cut off, so here's the rest of it.) “The hogwans or private after-school programs are a source of debate in Korea as they claim an increasing share of Korean childhood.

Along with pride in their educational success, Koreans are beginning to worry about too much stress on their children.” This part is true, except that Koreans have expressed their concern over hogwans not so much because of the stress placed on their children, but the extra costs resulting from these private cram schools. The result is that Korea has produced young citizens who are “human wikipedias” who are excellent at following instructions, but have very little intuitive skill. Until now, this system has worked for Korea as it rose from the ashes of the Korean War into an economic powerhouse. The reason is that its government and business structure has followed a top-down decision-making process. However, it’s hardly an appropriate model for the United States. Indeed, as Korea’s fledgling democracy and economy continues to mature, its education system will likely require restructuring as well. Finally, perhaps you’ve noticed that children of Asian immigrants generally have had greater academic success than their peers in the American school system. I would suggest that this demonstrates that, rather than systematic flaws, the problem lies in cultural perceptions toward the importance of education—particularly at the nuclear family level.


From air76
Pocheon, South Korea

I signed up for an account simply to make a comment with regards to this article written by the President of the Seattle Public School Board. The citizens of Seattle should be mortified that the president of their school board can be so easily hoodwinked into believing that we have anything at all to learn from the Korean education system.

I have not been living in Korea for as long as Seoul_to_Seattle has, but I have been here long enough to ascertain that each and every point he made in his rebuttal is spot on in accuracy.

There is no education system in Korea...there is simply one 18-year long test preparation system. The university entrance exam literally determines the rest of a Korean's life. There entire educational value system is based on standardized tests. Where Mr. DeBell got the idea that they grade coursework is beyond me. There is virtually no coursework in Korea, zero, none.

Your grade is your test score...end of story.

I teach at a university and literally 100% of my students had NEVER written a single essay, report, or term paper before coming to my class, neither in English nor in Korean. I am so angry after reading this article I can hardly see straight and don't even know where to begin. I can fully see how Seoul_to_Seattle ran out of space in his/her first post as I could literally write a dissertation on reasons why Mr. DeBell's arguments are completely unfounded, erroneous, and as another poster pointed out, creating a Utopian view of a foreign country's education system after a short visit and undoubtedly a "guided" tour.

When I taught at a high school in Korea I had 50 students in my class. They were for the most part extraordinarily lazy and disrespectful. The notion that Korean students have this undying devotion and respect for their teachers is a completely outdated concept. The idea that corporal punishment is gone is also false.

For one thing, Koreans are adept at 'hiding' away problems in society...according to Korean officials Koreans no longer eat dogs, false, there are at least a dozen dog restaurants within 5 miles of my apartment..according to Korean officials there are no gays in Korea, no drug abuse, no rape, no child molesters, and so on.

I was just talking to one of my Freshman classes the other day and a student told me that he had his fingers broken by a teacher in high school. They had a vocabulary test where they had to memorize 1000 words in English. For every word they got wrong they were hit with a stick (similar to a drum stick) across their palms. He had missed 138 out of the 1000 words and was therefore hit 138 times. Upon learning that the teacher had broken several of his fingers, his parents' response was "I hope that you learned your lesson and study harder next time." This situation is so much closer to the norm than an out lier.

I have also worked in one of these "wonderful" hagwons, where children were routinely beaten, not spanked, beaten with sticks after coming to class without their homework, or similarly by not scoring well enough on their quiz. While our education system certainly has room for improvement, we have nothing, nada, nil, heck, I'll even say it in Korean, we have "kong" to learn from the Korean education system, and I'm sorry, but anyone who believes otherwise is entirely ignorant on the subject.

Mr. DeBell also forgot to mention that on average high school runs from 6 or 7 am to 11 pm in Korea....does that mean we need to start sending our kids to school for literally 14 to 15 hours per day? Koreans have high test scores because they study to take tests...everything in Korea has a right or wrong answer.

They literally take multiple choice tests for subjects such as art, music, and physical education. Well over half of the Korean populace cannot swim...why? Because they learn to swim from a book. I'm serious. They learn to swim from a book and then take a test that shows drawings of which strokes are which and what you do next in order to swim...mark A, B, C, or D. So hey!

Koreans are scoring higher than Americans in their swimming tests! What are we doing wrong? What are they doing right? Take 10 Americans and 10 Koreans and throw them into the lake and you'll have 10 wet Americans and 5 drowned Koreans....use this same analogy for society and you'll find the same results. Koreans don't learn how to problem solve, how to analyze, how to synthesize, or how to think for themselves...they learn how to take tests and that's that, and that's precisely why they are good at it. Some more figures that are missing here is the fact that despite Korea's economic growth, Korea is one of the most inefficient countries in the world in terms of GDP per hour worked. Economic growth is spurred by 15 hour work days, and not by innovation and efficient work practices. I will stand 100% by


From air76
Pocheon, South Korea

(My post was cut off)

Some more figures that are missing here is the fact that despite Korea's economic growth, Korea is one of the most inefficient countries in the world in terms of GDP per hour worked. Economic growth is spurred by 15 hour work days, and not by innovation and efficient work practices.

I will stand 100% by my assertion that the American populace is FAR FAR better education than the Korean populace. The difference is so great that it's laughable that anyone would believe otherwise, regardless of what the test statistics show. What these statistics also don't show is that these tests do not require that students synthesize mathematical or scientific knowledge, simply that they are able to circle the correct bubble that correlates to the right answer.


From air76
Pocheon, South Korea

EDIT #2...sorry, I'm just so dumbfounded by this article that I can't type fast enough American populace is FAR FAR better educated than the Korean populace.


From air76
Pocheon, South Korea

Sorry...one more edit.

Although this one is more fact based and not grammatical. I shouldn't have said that Korea is one of the most inefficient countries in the world in terms of GDP per hour worked...they are one of the most inefficient industrialized nations. Currently they are ranked around 30th. Guess who is number one? The most efficient workforce in the world, producing more for every hour of input than any other country in the world? Hmm...any guesses? Well, it's the USA, and by a decent margin. Even small oil rich countries like Norway have a lower GDP per hour worked....our country is built on innovation, not memorization, and let's keep it that way. I don't believe that our standard of living in decreasing...what is happening is that our "idea" of what our standard of living should be is being artificially inflated in our minds.

In the 1950s and 1960s how many childless couples bought 4 bedroom, 3 car garage homes that they couldn't afford? How many blue collar families bought $35,000 cars (adjust for inflation) that they couldn't afford? We have been living beyond our means for the past 20 years and are now having to check our spending and lower our debt. Our standard of living is not declining as much as we are simply being forced to live the standard of living that we can truly afford, and not an inflated one based on borrowing.


I couldn't have said that any better myself.

Dora