Zhao Versus Two Million Minutes

Robert Compton, creator of Two Million Minutes, a film series that compares U.S. students to their peers in India and China on performance and motivation, recently released a sequel to his controversial series.

The first installments of Two Million Minutes raised debate over the right direction for education reform in the United States. Speaking from a business background, Compton argues for raising the standard of education, especially in U.S. high schools, so that U.S. students can better compete with their Asian counterparts. 

Although Compton sees the benefits of adopting Chinese and Indian approaches to education, Michigan State professor Yong Zhao argues that standardization and high-stakes accountability will set the United States behind the curve in innovation and creativity.

The third and most recent chapter of Compton's series, Two Million Minutes: A 21st Century Solution, focuses on one charter school in Arizona as a model for school reform in the United States and advocates lifting restrictions on both charter growth and alternative routes to teacher certification. However, according to blogger and school leader Jonathan Martin, the movie fails to show what makes the teaching and learning so great at the school profiled and glosses over a nuanced understanding of school improvement in favor of delivering an ideal.