Lessons From Shanghai's Top Scores on International Test

I'm Alex Villarreal with the VOA Special English Education Report, from http://voaspecialenglish.com | http://facebook.com/voalearningenglishThe Program for International Student Assessment, or PISA, is a two-hour test that compares the performance of fifteen-year-olds. In the latest test, the countries with the best readers were South Korea and Finland. But students in Shanghai, China, scored the highest of all in reading, mathematicsand science. The next strongest results were in Hong Kong, Singapore, Canada, New Zealand and Japan. In all, around half a million students in more than seventy economies took the test in two thousand nine. The test has been given every three years since two thousand. Shanghai took part for the first time in two thousand nine. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development released the results. Andreas Schleicher is director of the Education Indicators and Analysis Division at the OECD. He says: "Asian countries value education more than other countries. They have given educationa priority. Every child, every teacher, every parent knows that education is the gateway to success." Mr. Schleicher says other education systems can learn from Shanghai. For example, he says education spending in the province has increased, including teacher pay and training. And administrators areputting teachers into challenging classroom situations to make them better at their jobs.In the PISA scoring system, Shanghai scored six hundred in math. By comparison, the United States scored four hundred eighty-seven. Shanghai's reading average was five hundred fifty-six. American fifteen-year-olds scored five hundred, the same as in Iceland and Poland.In science, Finland was second behind Shanghai. The United States was twenty-third.Education Secretary Arne Duncan says the results show an urgent need for Americans to do more to remain competitive in the world economy. He points out thatthe United States has fallen from first to ninth place in college graduation rates because of gains by other countries. Mr. Schleicher says international testing experts have investigated and confirmed the Shanghai scores. He says the PISA results are not representative of all of China. But he alsosays they dispute the common belief that Chinese education is centered on repetition and memorization. Twenty-five percent of the Shanghai students showed advanced thinking skills to solve difficult math problems. The OECD average was three percent. For VOA Special English I'm Alex Villarreal.

(Adapted from a radio program broadcast 16Dec2011)