Top Scores from Shanghai Stun Educators

These days, there is a lot of hot news including Wikileaks.

However, this week, I read an article titled “In P ISA Test, Top Scores from Shanghai　Stun Educators.

The article is as follows:

With China’s debut in international standardized testing, students in Shanghai have surprised experts by outscoring their counterparts in dozens of other countries, in reading as well as in math and science, according to the results of a respected exam.

About 5,100 15-year-olds in Shanghai were chosen as a representative cross-section of students in that city. In the United States, a similar number of students from across the country were selected as a representative sample for the test.

Experts noted the obvious difficulty of using a standardized test to compare countries and cities of vastly different sizes. Even so, they said the stellar academic performance of students in Shanghai was noteworthy, and another sign of China’s rapid modernization.

The results also appeared to reflect the culture of education there, including greater emphasis on teacher training and more time spent on studying rather than extracurricular activities like sports.

In math, the Shanghai students performed in a class by themselves, outperforming second-place Singapore, which has been seen as an educational superstar in recent years. The average math scores of American students put them below 30 other countries.

PISA scores are on a scale, with 500 as the average. Two-thirds of students in participating countries score between 400 and 600. On the math test last year, students in Shanghai scored 600, in Singapore 562, in Germany 513, and in the United States 487.

In reading, Shanghai students scored 556, ahead of second-place Korea with 539. The United States scored 500 and came in 17th, putting it on par with students in the Netherlands, Belgium, Norway, Germany, France, the United Kingdom and several other countries.

In science, Shanghai students scored 575. In second place was Finland, where the average score was 554. The United States scored 502 — in 23rd place — with a performance indistinguishable from Poland, Ireland, Norway, France and several other countries.

I knew that Korea made much of education, but I was surprised at many Asian countries’ success in study. I imagined European and American are smarter than any others, so I feel very happy at this news.

Even Shanghai students got high score at all subjects, this does not mean Chinese educational level risen. However, this leads China make much of education.

By the way, Japanese students’ reading skill got rise. This news is happy for us! I am not good at reading (But I love reading books!). But many Japanese seem to study reading:) Come to think of it, what make Japanese reading skill rise? Teachers try new method? If there are students studying education in the class, I want to listen to them!

Sam Dillon. “Shanghai Test Scores Stun Educators”

New York Times 7 Dec.2010: n pag. 8 Dec.2010