But I bet our teens are first in Call of Duty: Black Ops

or facebooking...


http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-07/teens-in-u-s-rank-25th-on-math-test-trail-in-science-reading.html

Fifteen-year-olds in the U.S. ranked 25th among peers from 34 countries on a math test and scored in the middle in science and reading, while China’s Shanghai topped the charts, raising concern that the U.S. isn’t prepared to succeed in the global economy.

The Paris-based Organization of Economic Cooperation & Development, which represents 34 countries, today released the 2009 Program for International Student Assessment. For the first time, the test broke out the performance of China’s Shanghai region, which topped every country in all academic categories. The U.S. government considers the test one of the most comprehensive measures of international achievement.

 

Does good news ever come out about this country anymore?

Disgraceful as usual.

 

The Atlantic had a study in which it separated out the U.S. states and compared them to other countries. I'll dig it up. I know Massachussetts was first among U.S. states, and like 11th when compared to other countries. Still not good, especially since that's our top educational state, but still better than once you start stirring Mississippi and Alabama and such into the stew.

 

This is also the kind of stuff that makes me pissed off when I read yet another story about how U.S. teen-agers today are pushed too hard educationally, have too much pressure, etc., etc., etc.

I would argue that the opposite is true. And I'd have lots of data to back me up.

 

Soon enough, we're going to learn as a nation that you get out of it what you put into it.

 

I think that The Atlantic's study was of just high achievers.

We still sucked.

 

American kids have been doing poorly in these studies and people have been saying kids are lazy idiots since I was a kid 50 years ago. There are problems in U.S. education to be sure. But I think a lot of this is just the same old old people's rant that kids today suck, packaged up with fraudulent social science statistics. There are so many of these surveys, I think kids around the world must do nothing but take tests.

 

- Organization of Economic Cooperation & Development

So what percentage of Chinese students reach "the end of compulsory education?"

I wonder how it compares to the USA?

 

I don't agree.

I don't need this study to tell me what my eyes see.

My wife teaches. Kids come to school so poorly prepared. For fuck's sake, breakfast is now part of the school day because so many kids aren't fed at home. Kids come to school in pajamas, for chrissake. You remember kids coming to school in pajamas when you were in elementary school?

 

And those students would never be allowed to attend high school in many countries. They would just all be ditch diggers.

But, in America, we try our best to turn ditch diggers into more educated people.

 

yet ditch diggers make quite a bit more than "educated" people

 

If someone has actual proof that the studies are flawed, please present it.

Otherwise, the conjecture and blaming of the messenger and rationalizing just sounds like flag waving.

By the way, the reason that we still do OK is that our university system is still the world's best. Unfortunately, the hard science and engineering PhD programs are stocked with mostly Indians and Asians.