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Math Skills Survey Shows U.S. Lags Behind

3l1za writes "The New York Times reports that the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has released its results (pdf) for a test of mathematical skills given to 15 year olds in 40 different countries. A few apparent anomalies: The US kids rated 28th of 40 (so in the bottom third) while the Czech Republic, which spends in education 1/3 of what the US spends, ranked in the top 10. Further, only about 1/3 of US kids reported that they did not feel as though they were good at math, whereas about 2/3 of Koreans reported this--and the Koreans ranked in the top three. 'Mr. Schleicher said that students in countries that emphasized theorems and rote learning tended not to do as well as those that emphasized the more practical aspects of mathematics.'"

3 of 1,528 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Controlling for IQ by wurp · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Provide a link or stfu, you racist propogandist.

  2. Yeah, but how fast does Linux boot? by quamaretto · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    And what about overclocking? Wait, it doesn't run Linux? And why would I want one of these? :)

    But on a more serious note, I'll bet a lot of the people posting in here don't mind rebooting from Linux into Windows to play their games, and that takes, what, a full minute or more?

    (I note that, in the late 90's, we all bitched about load times on the original Playstation.)

    --
    *is run over by rotten tomatoes*
  3. Re:Yabbut... by 0racle · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Thats all well and good, if the only thing important to the school is football. I used to think that university was about education, then I finnished High School, dolts who play sports are the only people schools are interested in. It should be a disgusting reminder of why the US falls behind in every academic endeavour, but everyone is too busy screaming their heads off at some stupid game.

    --
    "I use a Mac because I'm just better than you are."