Those Inbred Finns Keep Getting Stupider

[Louis VI the Fat]

[gaelic cowboy]

I doubt China is that good there central government statistics are generally bogus

[Yoyoma1910]

The only reason that France scored better than the U.S. in math is because my wife now lives here as opposed to there.

[HoreTore]

Bah, the finns use almost no IT, projects or cooperation in their education.

PISA only checks 3 of 10-15 goals the schools have, and only parts of those three goals. It's an irrelevant and idiotic test.

ALSO, the amount of data is way too small to be statistically relevant and indicate any general trend.

[Furunculus]

i wonder if the new free schools will do anything to drag britain's scores from the wreckage of our comprehensive system in the next decade?

[Beskar]

i wonder if the new free schools will do anything to drag britain's scores from the wreckage of our comprehensive system in the next decade?

It will make things far worse.

[Furunculus]

It will make things far worse.

why?

[Louis VI the Fat]

Even if we accept that the results of Shanghai are slightly skewed, the results themselves are nonetheless there. Shanghai is a huge region of twenty million.
Also, China not just came on top. But came on top by an enormous margin. The difference in scores between Shanghai and France are as large as the difference between France and Papoea New Guinea.



French kids are less well educated than that centre of public intellectual endeavor and of teenage cultural refinement, the United States.

Ah well. We beat Britain and Sweden.

[al Roumi]

i wonder if the new free schools will do anything to drag britain's scores from the wreckage of our comprehensive system in the next decade?

It will make things far worse.

why?

Because it will make things better only for the very best. It will not drag up the lowest common denominator, it will exacerbate the already stark division in education and life chances that being middle or working class entails. The comprehensive system is precisely about minimising the effect of parentage, or at its best, spreading the positives around.

It is a simple truth (in Britain at least) that middle class parents tend to be a)aware of the need and methods as well as b)better equipped to get involved and work the system for their child's benefit. When middle class kids are concentrated, they therefore rise and rise -but leaving the greater majority of working class kids to (essentially) fester. Keeping a mix, i.e. as a comprehensive system should (that means without selective schools int he same catchment area), means the middle class parents militation will ensure the school does its best -and crucialy, not just for the middle class kids but also the working class kids too.

[naut]

I doubt China is that good there central government statistics are generally bogus

Well the three Chinese regions represented are the richest, most advanced parts of the country. I mean testing Hong Kong, Macao and Shanghai only is a bit like the US testing MIT, Harvard and Yale students and then proclaiming: "HEY LOOK ALL OUR UNIVERSITIES ARE GOOD!"

[Seamus Fermanagh]

Please note that the three regions selected for China include two former Euro-colonies and that all three are high-tech, heavy capitalist enclaves relative to the bulk of China.

If other nations got to submit scores from analogous areas only, they might do surprisingly better....even those Lapp-lover Finns.