Education Around the World

As many of you may (or may not) know, students in the US lag behind their counterparts in most other developed countries when tested in general knowledge subjects. Why is this and what can we do about it? Should we do something about it?

There is a test taken by students near the end of their required schooling at the age of 15 in many countries known as PISA or Program for International Student Assessment. In 2003, (2006 was also a testing year, but results aren't out yet) 40 countries participated and the results or ranking for a selected few countries looks like this:

Country followed by their rank in Reading, Math, Science and Problem Solving.

Finland #1 #2 #1 #3

Canada #3 #7 #11 #9

Japan #14 #6 #2 #4

France #17 #16 #13 #13

USA #18 #28 #22 #29

Russia #32 #29 #24 #28

Mexico #38 #37 #37 #37

The grand plan of this assessment is not so much a competition, but rather a means to see what kind of educational methods work best and what needs improving on a global scale. In Finland 9 years of education is compulsory and free for children between the ages of 7 and 16. Lunches and books and medical care are also free and available to all. Finland is a welfare state with an egalitarian and rather homogeneous society and a nationwide curriculum. Maybe this lends to their competitive advantage?

On the other hand Canada did well in every category and always better than the US. They have a smaller population, but an equal amount of diversity and an education system which is generally quite similar to our own. So, what gives?

Obviously many people have studied this more and understand the nuances better and have written tons of documentation to support their beliefs, but this is my feeble attempt at trying to explain the difference. I don't think the much discussed No Child Left Behind is directly involved with the improvement of our scores, but the idea of improving educational opportunity for poor people will go a long way to help, i.e. we are not exactly an egalitarian society.

The US ranks high in the amount of money spent per student, so this doesn't seem to be the problem. Also the student/teacher ratio doesn't appear to be much of a factor in performance on the international stage. The amount of time in class does seem to show a positive result, but standards vary considerably throughout the country. US students actually compare quite favorably during the early years of education but fall behind in Junior High and High School.

Here is the Marc Adami theory. In my experience young people in most countries outside the US are more mature than they are here. We catch up in our 20's and I'm not sure of the reason for the delayed development. All I can think of is that rich kids are coddled and poor kids are ignored. I'm sure our teachers are no better or worse than those outside the US. Although paid better they get less respect than almost everywhere else. For some reason we hold lawyers and doctors in higher esteem than they deserve. Here smart is not cool and athletes are adored. In most countries kids participate in sports outside of school. If you want to be a professional athlete outside the US you join a farm system where talents are developed. School pride is on academic success and not on the sport field. And finally an attitude that I hear a lot here is "he/she is book smart, but has no common sense." We rank common sense higher than knowledge. This is not a good thing. My fear is that if we (here in the US) all took this test that a 15 year old should be able to pass we wouldn't do so well compared to other countries. The biggest problem then is "attitude."

I think we're afraid that Mexicans will come to the US where there is more opportunity and a better education system and no one will go to Canada because we're afraid of looking stupid.

(by Marc Adami, Guest Columnist)