Posted on 05/17/2015 8:27:19 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Singapore is the smartest country in the world, followed by Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, Finland, Estonia, Switzerland, Netherlands and Canada rounding out the top 10.
The BBC says this is the conclusion of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), an economic think tank that outlined its findings in a new report ranking countries' school systems based on students math and science test scores.
The report – which the BBC received early access to – will be formally presented at the World Education Forum in South Korea next week.
Of the 76 countries ranked, the top half is largely dominated by Asian nations, the BBC reports. European countries take up a majority of spots 5 through 30 in the rankings, and the United States sits at the tail end of the top third, tied at 28th with Italy. The bottom half of the rankings feature mostly African and Latin American countries.
The bottom 10? Saudi Arabia at 66th, followed by Colombia, Qatar, Indonesia, Botswana, Peru, Oman, Morocco, Honduras, South Africa, and Ghana in last place.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Top five, Asian countries. Next five, arguably Nordic countries. Except for Japan these countries have fairly small populations. In fact Singapore and Hong Kong are more aptly described as city states rather than countries. The bigger you get, the harder it is to maintain standards.
I wonder how many of these countries have federal "departments of education"? I know Canada does not.
Factor in the rot that infects just about every metro school district in the US. Those results tend to bring down the US average. Throw them out and the US is easily in the top 10.
Congratulations to my Canadian Cousins in the “Polite State of America.”
Sampling error.
Our education system takes in and tests a wider variety of people, and the favored countries put most of their population on rigid tracks (or streams) that are unlikely to receive international tests.
It’s an easy way for others to shove the US down the ranks while feigning a sense of “scientific validity”.
Tiny countries; you have to look at the whole population. They might have a few thousand scoring high but so does the USA.. Is this per capita? or total?
At least he was smoking.
I was thinking the same damn thing.
Technically, Hong Kong is not a country, but it does have its own currency and legal system. I wonder how much the British influence impacted the educational system there.
RE: It’s an easy way for others to shove the US down the ranks while feigning a sense of “scientific validity”.
The North Shore of Long Island has some of the best schools in the United States.
The students take the International Tests at the 4th, 8th and 12th grade and guess what?
They score on average, higher than the top 5 countries on the list.
Here’s the other thing — the Koreans and Taiwanese immigrants in New York score HIGHER on average than the Koreans and Taiwanese in Korea and Taiwan.
Go figure.
RE: Tiny countries
I wouldn’t call Japan (127 Million people ) and South Korea ( 51 million people ) tiny by any means.
I’ll concede that they have a HOMOGENEOUS population unlike the USA where (whether we want to be PC or not ), the presence of various ethnic groups will SKEW the average results DOWNWARDS.
I went to public school during the Nixon and Carter years. It was a zoo - like Welcome Back Kotter. An absolute joke. Good thing I developed a lifelong love of non-fiction reading so that I was able to overcome that and learn about the world.
Turkish is like that. I think Finnish and Thai are also.
I didn’t know that.
The Brits on the other hand dumped them. There was a program that put 2000s kids through a 50s curriculum (UK TV program) and found that half failed and no one got an A, not even the A+ students.
I know 1/3rd of Brits don't know the meaning of the Battle of Waterloo and history is "optional" -- their system is the only one that makes the US system look good
well, racially the Caucasians include not only Europeans but also Semitic (ARabs, Jews) and their cousins in North Africans (think Libyans), Iranis, Indians (both north — Aryans and south - Dravidians) and strangely enough even Australian Aborigines
This is why we need control of our schools and curriculum at the local level. We’ve been dumbded down for far too long and have a lot of catching up to do.
Hong Kong’s doing all right, no?
Damn Polonophobes, Hong-Kong is not a real country...
RE: Hong-Kong is not a real country...
And China insists that Taiwan is not a country either.
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