Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Not the Usual Story

I've gotten so used to the crisis narrative that usually drives the media's reporting on schools that a piece like this one by Washington Post staff writer Paul Farhi seems deserving of special notice:
Five Myths About U.S. Kids Outclassed by the Rest of the World

By Paul Farhi
Sunday, January 21, 2007; Page B02

The usual hand-wringing accompanied the Department of Education's release late last year of new statistics on how U.S. students performed on international tests. How will the United States compete in the global economy, went the lament, when our students lag behind the likes of Singapore and Hong Kong in math and science? American fourth-graders ranked 12th in the world on one international math test, and eighth-graders were 14th. Is this further evidence of the failure of the nation's schools?

Not exactly. In fact, a closer look at how our kids perform against the international "competition" suggests that this story line may contain more than a few myths:

Read the rest here.

1 comment:

Michael Moore said...

We're a nation of strivers and self-improvers? Singapore wants to learn from our creativity? Not in my experience. Strivers and self improvers are not welcomed in the work force where I live.

Pat Finn writes about why our economy and gnp are rising. We educate a few to run our country and the rest to service it.