U.S. Teens Lag as China Soars on International Test

[madmax]

The good news is we're consistant. We suck at just about everything!! USA USA USA


"U.S. Teens Lag as China Soars on International Test"

"Dec. 7 (Bloomberg) -- Fifteen-year-olds in the U.S. ranked 25th among peers from 34 countries on a math test and scored in the middle in science and reading, while China’s Shanghai topped the charts, raising concern that the U.S. isn’t prepared to succeed in the global economy.

The Paris-based Organization of Economic Cooperation & Development, which represents 34 countries, today released the 2009 Program for International Student Assessment. For the first time, the test broke out the performance of China’s Shanghai region, which topped every country in all academic categories. The U.S. government considers the test one of the most comprehensive measures of international achievement.

The results show that U.S. students must improve to compete in a global economy, Education Secretary Arne Duncan said yesterday in a telephone interview. President Barack Obama’s administration is promoting national curriculum standards and a revamping of teacher pay that stresses performance rather than credentials and seniority.

“The brutal fact here is there are many countries that are far ahead of us and improving more rapidly than we are,” Duncan said. “This should be a massive wake-up call to the entire country.”
China’s success in Shanghai results from the government’s abandonment of a system of “key schools” for elites and the institution of “a more inclusive system in which all students are expected to perform at high levels,” the OECD said in the report."


Please read more at link: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-12-07/u-s-teens-lag-as-china-soars-on-international-test.html

[earthside]

1. This has got to be a lie.

After ten years of Obama-Bush-Duncan-Spellings education reform that is supported by Bill Gates and Eli Broad and the rest of the "reformers" ... well, it just cannot be true that the USA isn't Number One!






:sarcasm:

[DoBotherMe]

2. Wouldn't national curriculum standards be enough

to improve US standings. Shouldn't we try to emulate the Finnish system that provides a good salary and requires credentials and seniority, rather than the coercive dictatorship that is China? Dana ; )

[ibegurpard]

3. yay...the chinese can teach to the test too!

No child left behind! Charter schools! Go team!

[andym]

4. So what is the basis of the USA's economic advantage?

A historical combination of industrial power, technology innovation, banking/investment, and some natural resources.

What are the trends: industrial power --> diminishing as countries with cheap labor displace the USA
natural resources --> diminishing (though plenty of natural gas remains)
banking/investment --> clearly volatile as economic crisis showed
technology innovation--> still high, but here's where superior education in places like China will probably
lead to relative loss of power

There is no easy answer to America's education problem. First and foremost is that success in education is not a strong American cultural value in general, although subpopulations do place a high value on education. There is to some extent an anti-intellectual thread in American culture that has persisted for years. See for example Vonnegut's satirical story Harrison Bergeron (1961) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrison_Bergeron .