UO education professor Yong Zhao was the subject of a recent New York Times article on Chinese education and American education.

Zhao discussed his new book “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Dragon: Why China Has the Best (and Worst) Education System in the World,” which looks at China’s evolution in education and what the United States can learn from it. The story appeared in the paper’s Sept. 14 edition.

Zhao, the university’s first Presidential Chair, is an internationally recognized scholar whose work focuses on the effects of globalization and technology on education. He is a professor in the Department of Educational Methodology, Policy, and Leadership in the UO College of Education and is an elected fellow of the International Academy for Education.

In the article, Zhao said that “the U.S. has certainly become more like China in recent years,” citing the No Child Left Behind act as increasing “the stakes and usage of standardized testing,” even though, in Zhao’s view, “test scores are far from meaningful educational outcomes.”

“American education today has become more centralized, standardized and test-driven, with an increasingly narrow educational experience, which characterizes Chinese education,” Zhao explained. He thinks this system won’t “respect students’ interest and passion, cultivate creativity or entrepreneurial thinking” and instead will be harmful to both students and the U.S. economy in the long run.

―By Nathan Stevens, Public Affairs Communications intern