New Education Performance Data Published: Asia Dominates

jones_supa writes "The latest PISA (Programme for International Assessment) results are out today. Since 2000, the OECD has attempted to evaluate the knowledge and skills of 15-year olds across the world through its PISA test. More than 510,000 students in 65 economies took part in the latest test, which covered math, reading and science, with the main focus on math — which the OECD state is a 'strong predictor of participation in post-secondary education and future success.' Asian countries outperform the rest of the world, according to the OECD, with Shanghai, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, Macau and Japan amongst the top performing countries and economies. Students in Shanghai performed so well in math that the OECD report compares their scoring to the equivalent of nearly three years of schooling above most OECD countries. The study shows also a slight gender cap: in all countries, boys generally perform a bit better than girls, but this applies only to math." Here's a spreadsheet listing each country's results. The U.S. ranked 26th in math (below average), 17th in reading (slightly above average), and 21st in science (slightly below average).

Comments

USA

[coinreturn]

USA is 36-24-28. Sounds about right - top-heavy.

Re:USA

[AioKits]

Only if she's 5'3".

Study is flawed -- compares cities to countries

[Anonymous Coward]

As Slate pointed out this morning (), the way that this study mixes data from individual urban areas with data from whole countries makes it impossible to perform fair comparisons. Note that 4 out of the 7 asian "countries" that the Slashdot summary refers to (Shanghai, Singapore, Hong Kong, Macau) are either city-states or aren't even countries at all!

Comparing non-countries (or city-states) with countries biases the results by comparing poorer, less educated rural areas with better educated cities.

Re:Study is flawed -- compares cities to countries

[rahvin112]

I personally reject the assertion that math scores predict future success (there might be a small relationship in certain nations, but not worldwide), I also reject that cultural bias is being neglected.

I've met plenty of engineers from cultures where questioning and innovation are highly discouraged and they couldn't innovate their way out of a paper bag. Great at the book learning and can duplicate the solution to any problem they've seen but handling real world problems where the constraints don't match the book? They don't even reach the level of western high school students even when compared against PHD's. There is a real cultural bias, and ultimately that bias is going to handicap the advancement of every culture it infects.

Re:Study is flawed -- compares cities to countries

[ShanghaiBill]

in Europe, city centers tend to be expensive, prestigious, and very well equipped with top schools. It's probably the poor suburbians who fare worse.

In America it is exactly the opposite.

I lived in Shanghai for several years, and my kids attended school there. In American math class they say "show your work". In Chinese math classes they say "do it in your head". Chinese kids have to stand with their hands behind their backs, looking at a list of integers on the whiteboard, and add them up in their head. They do the same with subtraction, multiplication, and division. They drill until they get good at it. As an American, I never learned to do that. So when I need a list of numbers added, I just ask my Chinese educated daughter to do it. That is usually quicker than looking for a calculator.

Re:Study is flawed -- compares cities to countries

[ShanghaiBill]

The study is flawed because it takes into account the same crappy tests that utterly fail to test for any sort of understanding of the material. This is not "education," unless you consider pure rote memorization to be education.

Baloney. Have you even looked at the test? Here are some example questions. The questions involve a lot more than "rote memorization".

Re:Study is flawed -- compares cities to countries

[boristhespider]

This is a totally fair point, so let's remove the Chinese cities and leave only genuinely independent states. City states count as independent states. Then we end up with

Singapore
Taiwan
South Korea
Japan
Liechtenstein
Switzerland
Netherlands
Estonia
Finland
Canada

If our pride is still hurt, and I note that Britain, Germany and Norway aren't on the list yet so mine certainly is, we can go further and decide that we won't count city states either (though that's a step that isn't really very well justified at all.) Then we're left with

Taiwan
South Korea
Japan
Switzerland
Netherlands
Estonia
Finland
Canada
Poland
Belgium

Alas, I'd have to find another reason to cut out a state before Germany finally popped into the top ten, and I'd have to cut out every single one of these somehow before the UK even came in at number 10. We'd have to lose all those *again* before the USA finally appears in the list.

The thing that gets me about people's responses to these lists is the air of hurt nationalism. It seems people will say "shitty inner-city areas in the USA are dragging down the average". That's totally true. But the USA is coming in below Slovakia, which has shitty inner-city areas, and Russia, which these days is very little *but* shitty inner-city areas once you're outside of Petersburg and Moscow. Most (indeed all) the European nations have some horrible shitty inner-city areas, too. Unfortunately for humanity, the USA does not hold a monopoly on shitty inner-city schools bringing down the averages.

The other point is that these tests are indicative, and not much more than that, and in nations with the populations of France, the UK and particularly the USA, you don't *need* an extremely highly-educated workforce to be more than able to keep an edge and keep ahead. You only need enough to fill positions needing high education and high skill, and otherwise people who may not do so well in these tests are more than capable enough to fill in the gaps. (Or, come to that, learn on the job anyway.) So the USA can still more than fill its various three-letter agencies and its universities and its technology firms, as can the UK, as can France. A nation like Liechtenstein, with its 35,000 inhabitants, is less likely to be able to rely on the long tail to do that.

None of this should be taken as an argument for complacence - Lord knows I'd like our education system(s) dramatically improved - but I don't think being "mid-table" (as the UK, the USA and France all are) is a cause for any new concern.

Is this any real surprise?

[bazmail]

Students nowadays cannot be punished for any misbehavior or disruption, its all illegal. Its common sense that standards are in the toilet. Students who succeed in the US now are succeeding despite our system, not because of it.

New country - does China know?

[unixisc]

From the people who yesterday gave us that Gothenburg is the capital of Sweden, now comes the news that Shanghai is a country.

I'm sure the PLA will be thrilled to know this, and can pull out troops in Tibet, or near the Taiwan Straits, and redirect them towards Shanghai!

Can PISA do an assessment test on /. editors & their geography?

Re:Asia Vs. America

[Anonymous Coward]

In America, you teach that Intelligent Design is valid science.

In America, belief and opinion is weighed equal to facts and evidence.

That, in a nutshell, is what it wrong with the US educational system -- it has become a tool of drooling idiots who pass rules about things they don't even remotely understand, and act like their religion actually defines reality.

In some ways, and in some places, America is little better than the Taliban ever was. You just change the specifics of the religion, but the results are the same.

Massachusetts

[the eric conspiracy]

Results among the states varies a lot. For example Massachusetts is fully competitive with the Asian countries. On the TIMSS exam (generally thought to be more difficult than the PISA test) Massachusetts finished sixth in the world in mathematics, and second in the sciences for it's 8th grade students.

High levels of achievement ARE attainable in the US. It isn't a matter of cultural problems, or the society we live in. It's a matter of politicians and parents adopting the attitude that it can be done, and sticking to that idea. Effective reform though is not something that can be done overnight. Massachusetts has been at it for 20 years.

http://boston.com/community/blogs/rock_the_schoolhouse/2012/12/massachusetts_aces_internation.html

Massachusetts has shown how to do it. Now all it takes is realization of what can be done and applying it elsewhere.

Take the test yourself

[Guillermito]

Here

http://www.oecd.org/pisa/test/

You can take a sample test yourself. See how basic the questions are and feel appalled to see the % of students in your country that managed to pass each level.

For example, only 11% of students in my country (Argentina) were able to reach level 3 (identify the smallest value in a table). Highest rank for that question was Shanghai-China (89%). USA was 48%.

Re:Teach to the test

[Korveck]

Based on my personal experience, students in those top ranking Asia Pacific area are taught at a faster pace and exposed to far more challenging questions in school. When I moved to Canada from Hong Kong, I didn't have to study Math for a year and a half because I learned almost everything already. The Asian students have far more homework. The more anxious parents send their kids to tutors, not necessarily because they are falling behind, but also to get ahead of the class. They don't need to "teach to the test" at all to get far better score. They simply know more and face difficult questions on a regular basis.

Re:Asia Vs. America

[serviscope_minor]

In some ways, and in some places, America is little better than the Taliban ever was.

Yep, because the Supreme Court will stone you to death if you try to teach the truth rather than creationism.

Missing in action.

[140Mandak262Jamuna]

I did what every Indian (or Indian American) does. First see where India is ranked. Then where Pakistan is. Laugh at Pakistan when it is beaten. If either or both are missing bemoan the loss of another opportunity to laugh at Pakistan. (What if Pakistan wins, you ask? bah! that never happens )

Well, whole of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan ... Looks like the entire subcontinent is missing. China has a few urban centers represented. Africa is gone. So it falls into the bemoan the ... category.

Gender gaps

[Samantha Wright]

TFS: "The study shows also a slight gender cap: in all countries, boys generally perform a bit better than girls, but this applies only to math."

PISA 2012 Overview: "Boys perform better than girls in mathematics in only 37 out of the 65 countries and economies that participated in PISA 2012, and girls outperform boys in five countries." (For the curious, they're Jordan, Qatar, Thailand, Malaysia and Iceland.)

The Guardian article didn't get this wrong. What the hell, submitter?

Perspective from a Chinese American

[Taco Cowboy]

I was from China, and I am a naturalized citizen of the United States of America.

Regarding education - back when I escaped from China (that was some 40 odd years ago) the schools in East Asia (countries which were/are heavily influenced by the Confucianism school of thought such as China, Korea, Japan, Singapore ) were pretty much based on the top-down rote-learning mode - whereby the students have no say, and they must do EVERYTHING their teachers told them to do.

It operated that way because the basic tenet of the Confucianism teaching is that the young uns are SLAVES to their elders (it's pretty much based on the blind obedience mode).

When I reached the West I was totally astounded when my classmate actually questioned the teachers !

That was a super NO-NO in Asia.

Back then, even if the student asked a totally legitimate question to the teacher in class that student will be summoned to the headmaster and/or discipline master's office for punishment.

That was how the Asian school had operated back then.

Now ... except for Korea, which is still practicing strict Confucianism as what it has been doing for the past 2,000 years ... many schools in the East Asian countries (those populated by yellow-skin folks) have drastically improved their teaching method.

Nowadays students are encouraged to solve problems, rather than to remember the facts laid out by their teachers.

From Singapore to Tokyo to Hong Kong to Taiwan, everywhere I go I see great improvements.

As for the other East Asian countries, those which are being populated by the brown skin folks such as Indonesia or the Philippines or Thailand, their schools are still as sucks as 50 years ago.

I see that there are people here trying to justify their own country's failing by saying that the "comparison is not fair", that the comparison is comparing "cities to countries".

For those folks, what I see is nothing much but sour grapes.

Yes, comparing schools in Hong Kong or Singapore to schools in the United States of America is comparing schools in CITIES to a LARGE COUNTRY --- but so what ?

If the schools in the United States of America sux, it's STILL SUX, no matter if it's in the city of Detroit or if it's in the city of Little Rock.

How many of my fellow Americans have been to the public schools ? How many of you have seen the effect of gangsterism in the public schools in America ?

I have.

I have 2 friends who were teachers in public schools in America who were MURDERED by their students.

On the other hand, I have a lot of friends who teach in schools in Asia, and so far, none of them have been killed by their students yet.

When I asked my teacher friends in Asia about a recent news of a math teacher in Boston who got her throat slit by her student. all of them were horrified by that news.

But when I post that same news to my friends who used to teach (and some are STILL teaching) in American public schools, they just shrug.

This reflects how bad the American school system has become.

You guys may want to deny it as much as you can, but for one who was from afar (I am not a product of the American high school system), the American school system has failed.