Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Top Test Scores From Shanghai Stun Educators

Read this article and comment below on thoughts and reflections:


http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/07/education/07education.html?_r=1&src=me&ref=homepage

21 comments:

Gregory Case said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Gregory Case said...

Not surprising. Teaching in China is far more competitive, allowing for much better teachers. If a teacher gets poor results, they're fired. America could do far better if more of the education budget was spent on equipment, and teachers can be hired without a teaching degree, if they have, say, a Ph. D. Also, teachers should be fired and hired based on performance, with standardized testing as the medium for judgement, not grades.

TJ Hairston said...

This article is about a bunch of student in Shanghai that get good test scores. the professors say that was the best out of 50 countries that's because they put the time and effort into their work everyday

Nick Anastasi said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Nick Anastasi said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
M said...

I am not surprised by the results of the tests. The education system of China is designed to push the students to mold them so they are great students and perform great on tests. I agree that the U.S. has to reinvest in its educational system if we want to continue to be a major economic power in future years.

Nick Anastasi said...

It's not surprising to me, that they came in 1st with all the test scores. Sports over there isn't as big for them as it is for us. Every Sunday we watch football and glued to our TV's where, they don't care as much, but care about Academics. Now everything basically being made in China shows that a lot of smart people come from that country. Which is why, I think we should follow in their foot steps.

Chris Fabrizio said...

This article explains that China is outperforming the U.S. and many other countries in education. This really isn't a surprise to me because they are able to hire better teachers and get a better education as the test scores show.

Ahmad Taha said...

I found that this article was not very surprising because average American students compared to others don't tend to have as much of a work ethic toward school work. For instance, it even said in the article that student in china, unlike us, focus less on athletics and music, and are focused more on things geared toward getting better exam grades. Although it is great to know that Massachusetts scored higher than all other states on the main federal math test, I don't think American students will ever become like students in Shanghai, at least not any time soon, unless the government puts more effort and focus into the education for the nation over the years. I also think making the whole country take a international test just for the country's reputation is totally stupid, the reputation shouldn't matter, what should matter is just improving the acedemic preformance on students.

Rose Fristrom said...

I am not surprised by this article, it just says things I already knew; that China performs much better than America on academic tests. I hope there is a way we can make our schools stronger, but with out making them like the schools in China. I went to China, I visited schools, they had lots of resources, it was cool. But they have no sports, they have no music, everything is based on tests. Students study from the time they get home until the time they go to sleep, because the tests determine their entire future. The teen suicide rate in China is much higher than it should be, because of all those tests. If you fail, you don't go to university, kids even commit suicide because the score they got wasn't as high as they (or their parents) hoped it would be. That's from a book, I didn't learn that there... Anyways, our school system is good, it just doesn't have enough money, if America invests more in schools, our schools will get better.

Anurag Budhathoki said...

My thoughts about this article is not surprising whatsoever because I've always known that China was top in academics and scoring high test scores than most of others around the world. America has to step-up their game because we're falling way behind when comes to test-taking we came in 23rd or 24th. We as Americans have to take education more seriously than ever before because China is way ahead of us and we're very far behind from other countries too.

Alice Leah Fristrom said...

It's not necessarily that students in Shanghai are smarter, it's rather a difference in culture. It's not surprising that they scored better if they focused on the required components. The thing is, American students just don't seem to care enough. The Educational System is falling apart. We focus on different things, such as socializing, sports, and otherwise. Also, our society is not compatible with learning. There's a lot of pressure on American students to focus on other things, and not much about school. Bad examples are set on the media all the time. We have a different sort of culture. Also, like a shirt I once saw said: 'It will be a great day when our schools have all the money they need, and the army has to hold a bake sale to buy a bomber.'

Thien Dang said...

This article pretty much told me that china is by far the smartest country. But it also left me wondering is the US stupid because we scored really low on all the subjects and that leaves me wondering.

Benjamin said...

This report kind of scares me. Not because America is falling behind; that is worrying. But what scares me more is the idea that to achieve this, a child has to literally dedicate all of their time to school in order to raise their nation and their scores. It is also scary to think of our children's success when they are 15 as being representative of the success of a whole nation.

wilson said...

It wasn't a big shock that China was first in everything. China is a very smart country overall. They are doing good things in their education system and I think the United States and other countries should follow their lead. It was very surprising that the United States didn't even make the top 10 for any of the subjects.

Evan Rose said...

I would hate to live in china their lives must totally suck all they seem to do is study and go to school that seems like no fun at all in fact it seems pretty miserable. The USA was above average in two thirds of the cart which is still good compared to latvia who was below average in all catagories that they competed in. We may not be up to chinas level but it is still good.

Tim said...

What i took from this article is not that kids from China are smarter than kids from here its just we have different priorities and these kids were told that this test was very important to the country unlike the kids from the U.S. Kids in the U.S play more sports and practice music much more than these kids which can lead to successes in other fields. Education is important but its not everything.

john said...

This did not shock me one bit. They work harder and then we do they not put a lot of time in sports like we do here they put so much more effort in school. We could care less as long as we play sports. That is why they did the best.

madsonr9 said...

I'm not shocked at all to find that China is one of the nations with the highest scores. When it comes to their education things become competitive among one another mostly because in China without an education your pretty much doomed to live a poor life. Unlike in the US even the idiots here find jobs to create a living. But just because China got the top scores doesn't mean their smarter then us, it means they set there focus on education which is fine but they need to take the time to realize that life its all about education.

Raj Kumar said...

I'm not impressed or any surprised by this article. I already know how study is in Asia and I think it's not a good way to learn or teach. If you are sticked with with your studies 24 hours you're a bookworm. Bookworm- Doesn't know anything about what's going outside your house,city,state country. Students in Asia are well trained not well educated. They are told only 1 thing study hard. They would buy you anything you want but only if you are doing well in your studies.

Unknown said...

Now everything basically being made in China shows that a lot of smart people come from that country. Which is why, I think we should follow in their foot steps.

video production shanghai