Shanghai tops global school tests, UK 'stagnates'

[Devil Soul]

Shanghai tops global school tests, UK 'stagnates'
COMMENTS (924)
By Sean CoughlanBBC News education correspondent

The UK is falling behind global rivals in international tests taken by 15 year olds, failing to make the top 20 in maths, reading and science.

Shanghai in China is the world's top performing education system, in the Pisa tests run by the OECD think tank.

Within the UK, Scotland outperformed England at maths and reading, but Wales is below average in all subjects.

England's Education Secretary Michael Gove said the results proved the "urgent need for our reforms".

In response to the particularly poor results in Wales, Education Minister Huw Lewis said: "Everybody working in and around the Welsh education sector needs to take a long hard look in the mirror."

Global measure
The Pisa tests - the Programme for International Student Assessment - have become the most influential rankings in international education, based on tests taken by more than 500,000 secondary school pupils.

Continue reading the main story
What are the Pisa tests?

• International tests in maths, reading and science
• Tests are taken by 500,000 15 year old pupils in 65 countries and local administrations
• They are run every three years by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
• In the UK, more than 12,000 pupils took the tests in 2012

• Try the Pisa test yourself
• Singapore maths method

These measure education standards in Europe, North and South America, Australasia and parts of the Middle East and Asia.

Tunisia was the only African country that participated.

The top places in the rankings are dominated by Asian school systems - although China so far does not participate as a whole country, but is represented by high-performing cities such as Shanghai and Hong Kong.

Shanghai's maths score is the equivalent of three years' schooling above the OECD average.

Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea and Japan are among the highest ranked across all subjects.

The OECD's Andreas Schleicher, in charge of the Pisa tests, has highlighted Vietnam's "star performance".

The South East Asian country has entered the top 10 for science and outperformed many much wealthier western education systems, including the United States.

UK slips in science
The UK has made little progress and remains among the average, middle-ranking countries, in 26th place for maths and 23rd for reading, broadly similar to three years ago.

Continue reading the main story
READING TOP 10

• 1. Shanghai 570
• 2. Hong Kong 545
• 3. Singapore 542
• 4. Japan 538
• 5. South Korea 536
• 6. Finland 524
• 7. Ireland 523
• 8. Taiwan 523
• 9. Canada 523
• 10. Poland 518

Source: OECD

But the UK has slipped in science from 16th to 21st place.

Although not directly comparable, because there have been different numbers of countries taking part, this marks a sustained decline, with the UK having ranked 4th in the tests taken in 2000.

Much of this falling behind has been caused by other countries improving more quickly.

The OECD figures show that there has been almost no change in the UK's test scores, with the results "flat lining".

Within the UK, Scotland has performed slightly better than England in maths and reading, with England higher for science. Northern Ireland is behind them both across all subjects.

But the biggest gap is between Wales and the other parts of the UK, adrift from most of the middle ranking western countries.

Katja Hall, the chief policy director of the CBI employers' organisation, said: "No issue matters more to the UK economy over the long term than the quality of our education system."

But she warned the results should be a "wake-up call" and that when UK schools are only "treading water" that the country's economic performance will suffer.

Happiest pupils
The lowest ranked countries in this international league table are Peru and Indonesia. The OECD says the gap between top and bottom of this global classroom is the equivalent of six years of learning.

However Indonesia also appears as the country where the highest proportion of children say they are happiest at school. And the least happy pupils are in high-performing South Korea.

Continue reading the main story
MATHS TOP 10

• 1. Shanghai 613
• 2. Singapore 573
• 3. Hong Kong 561
• 4. Taiwan 560
• 5. South Korea 554
• 6. Macau-China 538
• 7. Japan 536
• 8. Lichtenstein 535
• 9. Switzerland 531
• 10. Netherlands 523

Source: OECD

Finland, once an education superpower at the top of the rankings, has slipped downwards. Along with Sweden, Finland had the biggest fall in scores of any country in maths tests.

Sweden has fallen behind eastern and central European countries such as Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and Estonia.

But Finland still has the highest position of any European country, fifth in science, the only non-Asian country in any of the top fives.

Among the strongest performances by English-speaking countries are Ireland, ranked 7th in reading, and Canada ranked 10th in science.

Chile is the strongest performer among South American countries, above the lowest-performing European country, Albania.

These Pisa tests provide an increasing level of regional detail and they show the huge variation within a single country.

In Italy, the region of Trento is one of the best in the world at maths, but Calabria is far below many European countries, the equivalent of two years behind.

The US remains average or below average, below countries such as Russia and Spain, but individual states are high performers.

If Massachusetts was ranked as a country it would be sixth best in the world, ahead of any European country.

From a low base in previous years, one of the biggest improvers in maths and reading is Qatar, a country that has been a high-profile investor in education.

Falling behind
Mr Gove said that the UK's lack of progress was evidence that Labour's spending on schools had failed to deliver improvements and that England's education system had "stagnated" and fallen behind other countries.

It will take another decade to measure the impact of the current government's reforms, said Mr Gove.

Continue reading the main story
SCIENCE TOP 10

• 1. Shanghai 580
• 2. Hong Kong 555
• 3. Singapore 551
• 4. Japan 547
• 5. Finland 545
• 6. Estonia 541
• 7. South Korea 538
• 8. Vietnam 528
• 9. Poland 526
• 10. Canada 525

Source: OECD

And the OECD education expert, Mr Schleicher, said it was much too early to use the latest Pisa tests to judge changes in England's school systems which were still in the process of being implemented.

Mr Gove emphasised the importance of such international comparisons.

"Only by learning from other nations and confronting failure at home will we give young people a fighting chance of competing for the jobs of the future," he said.

But Labour's Labour's Shadow Education Secretary, Tristram Hunt, said the Pisa results were a "big wake-up call" and evidence of a failure to meet the "international challenge".

Mr Hunt said that high performing Asian school systems reflected the "quality and status of the teaching profession".

There has already been speculation in Finland that the results will be disappointing, for a country that in the past has been one of the world's top performers.

In these latest tests, China will be represented by high-performing regional administrations such as Shanghai and Hong Kong - but in future years it is expected there will be enough data for a whole-country figure for China.
BBC News - Shanghai tops global school tests, UK 'stagnates'

 

[Götterdämmerung]

Waiting for people of the coming super duper power to dismiss PISA as not important. Only silly developed and rich countries take it seriously.

 

[Speeder 2]

Waiting for people of the coming super duper power to dismiss PISA as not important. Only silly developed and rich countries take it seriously.

Shanghai tops global school tests, UK 'stagnates', Supa powa "off the all charts"

 

[BigDaddyWatch]

As much as i appreciate this article its some what disingenuous as it compares Shanghai (a city) with other countries. Where does China as a whole stand on the rankings ?

 

[northeast]

As much as i appreciate this article its some what disingenuous as it compares Shanghai (a city) with other countries. Where does China as a whole stand on the rankings ?

Some part of china use uyghur，tibet and other local language to teach their students，so it's hard to test china as a whole stand，though there is a score that say how most of chinese performed in pisa 2009，it was quite good.

 

[ChinaToday]

Here's The New Ranking Of Top Countries In Reading, Science, And Math


The OECD is out with new global rankings of how students in various countries do in reading, science, and math. Results of the full survey can be found and delved into here.

You can see below how Asian countries are obliterating everyone else in these categories.

The United States, meanwhile, ranks below the OECD average in every category. And as the WSJ notes, the US has slipped in all of the major categories in recent years:

The results from the 2012 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), which are being released on Tuesday, show that teenagers in the U.S. slipped from 25th to 31st in math since 2009; from 20th to 24th in science; and from 11th to 21st in reading, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, which gathers and analyzes the data in the U.S.

Here are the top countries

 

[northeast]

Here's The New Ranking Of Top Countries In Reading, Science, And Math

The OECD is out with new global rankings of how students in various countries do in reading, science, and math. Results of the full survey can be found and delved into here.

You can see below how Asian countries are obliterating everyone else in these categories.

The United States, meanwhile, ranks below the OECD average in every category. And as the WSJ notes, the US has slipped in all of the major categories in recent years:

The results from the 2012 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), which are being released on Tuesday, show that teenagers in the U.S. slipped from 25th to 31st in math since 2009; from 20th to 24th in science; and from 11th to 21st in reading, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, which gathers and analyzes the data in the U.S.

Here are the top countries

It's the students of Northeastern and eastern asian countries which performed well，not simply asian students，certain asian supa power even cut their ties with pisa test to save thier face because of their crappy performance.

 

[BigDaddyWatch]

Here's The New Ranking Of Top Countries In Reading, Science, And Math

The OECD is out with new global rankings of how students in various countries do in reading, science, and math. Results of the full survey can be found and delved into here.

You can see below how Asian countries are obliterating everyone else in these categories.

The United States, meanwhile, ranks below the OECD average in every category. And as the WSJ notes, the US has slipped in all of the major categories in recent years:

The results from the 2012 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), which are being released on Tuesday, show that teenagers in the U.S. slipped from 25th to 31st in math since 2009; from 20th to 24th in science; and from 11th to 21st in reading, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, which gathers and analyzes the data in the U.S.

Here are the top countries

I see Shanghai, I see Taiwan, I see Hong Kong and i even see Macau on the list. But i don't see China on the list. Where is China ? Shanghai just one city can't represent the whole of China.

 

[northeast]

I see Shanghai, I see Taiwan, I see Hong Kong and i even see Macau on the list. But i don't see China on the list. Where is China ? Shanghai just one city can't represent the whole of China.

Analysis Of China’s PISA 2009 Results
We performed quite well in Pisa 2009

 

[ChinaToday]

Shanghai teens top international education ranking, OECD says


(CNN) -- When it comes to mathematics, reading and science, young people in Shanghai are the best in the world, according to a global education survey released Tuesday.

In all three subjects, Shanghai students demonstrated knowledge and skills equivalent to at least one additional year of schooling than their peers in countries like the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom.

The findings are part of the 2012 Program for International Student Assessment (or PISA) -- a leading survey of education systems conducted every three years by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), a grouping of the world's richest economies.

More than half a million students, aged 15 and 16, sat a two-hour exam last year as part of the study. The pupils came from 65 countries representing 80% of the global economy.

East Asian economies performed best overall, claiming seven of the top ten places across all three subjects.

READ: What Asian schools can teach the rest of the world

In math, Shanghai had the highest score with 613 points -- the equivalent of nearly three years of schooling above the average for the 34 OECD member countries of 494, and six years above Peru which ranked last with a score of 368. The city also came top in 2009 rankings.

Singapore came second in mathematics with a score of 573, followed by Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, and Macau.

But the math performance of most countries has not improved since the PISA tests were launched more than a decade ago.Around 60% of the 64 countries who participated in previous studies performed at the same level or worse in 2012, and nearly a third of all students scored in the lowest band for the subject.

TRY THE PISA TEST YOURSELF

U.S. lags

The United States ranked 36th, performing below the OECD average in mathematics with 481 points, and a score indistinguishable from the average for reading and science.

The United Kingdom did slightly better, ranking 26th, equaling the average score for OECD countries in math and reading. The UK performed above average in science with a score of 514.

Part of the reason pupils do so well in Shanghai, according to the OECD's deputy director of education, Andreas Schleicher, is that they have the drive and confidence to fulfill their potential.

"In China and Shanghai, you have nine out of ten students telling you, 'It depends on me. If I invest the effort, my teachers are going to help me to be successful'," Schleicher told CNN's On China program, which will air later this month.

Similarly, in Japan -- which ranked 7th overall -- more than 80% of students disagreed or strongly disagreed that they put off difficult problems, and 68% disagreed or strongly disagreed that they give up easily when confronted with a problem.

Hard work

"Practice and hard work go a long way towards developing each student's potential, but students can only achieve at the highest levels when they believe that they are in control of their success and that they are capable of achieving at high levels," the PISA report said.

PISA tests student near the end of their compulsory education in areas that are "essential for full participation in modern society," as well as their ability to apply what they have learned in new situations.

"This approach reflects the fact that modern economies reward individuals not for what they know, but for what they can do with what they know," the report said.

In reading, East Asian economies also topped the league table. Shanghai ranked first, with a score of 570 -- the equivalent of one and a half years more schooling than the OECD average. Hong Kong ranked second, followed by Singapore, Japan and South Korea. Half the countries that took part in previous assessments saw an improvement in reading comprehension since 2003.

Shanghai also topped the list in science, with a score of 580 compared to the average of 501 -- the equivalent of nearly two more years of schooling. In fifth place, Finland was the top performing country outside Asia, behind Hong Kong, Singapore and Japan.

Data on other Chinese provinces and cities is not yet published by PISA because not enough regions take part in the tests to be considered representative, a spokesman said. However, China as a whole is expected to be included in the 2015 assessment.

Shanghai has been at the forefront of education reforms in the country in recent years.

Rote learning?

Shanghai's outstanding performance defies preconceptions about China's education system being based on rote learning, according to Schleicher.

"The biggest surprise from Shanghai ... was not that students did well on reproducing subject matter content but that they were very, very good in those higher order skills (that reflect) what you can do with what you know," he said.

Around one in four Shanghai students performed in the top two reading bands compared to the average with just under one in ten.

Jiang Xueqin, deputy principal at the Tsinghua University High School in Beijing, told CNN that Shanghai's education system invests in teaching staff by offering training and high salaries.

"The teachers are very well-paid, very professional," Jiang said. "The Shanghai government will spend a lot of resources in making sure that each teacher is well trained, has opportunities to go abroad, (and) has opportunities to learn from the best teachers."

Other countries whose performance improved in PISA this year, such as Brazil, Colombia and Poland, have implemented policies to raise the quality of teaching staff by increasing requirements for education licenses, providing incentives for high-achieving students to enter the profession and ongoing on-the-job training, according to the report.

Jiang also told CNN that Shanghai's success is a product of a culture that prioritizes academic achievements over other pursuits.

"A lot of it is that the students are engaged in learning. The parents, the students, the community are engaged in making sure their child succeeds," he said.

Shanghai teens top international education ranking, OECD says - CNN.com

 

[Götterdämmerung]

As much as i appreciate this article its some what disingenuous as it compares Shanghai (a city) with other countries. Where does China as a whole stand on the rankings ?

I have just read some articles from the organisars of the PISA test. They said the results of other provinces of China will be announced soon but will not be included in the ranking. In 2015, the whole of China will take part in the test.

 

[notsuperstitious]

First three are cities. atleast Singapore is a country and HK separate administrative unit.

But why Shanghai? I've not understood how is that representative? And why are none of those intelligent Shanghai people ever here on the forum, under any flag, german, US or UK?

 

[northeast]

First three are cities. atleast Singapore is a country and HK separate administrative unit.

But why Shanghai? I've not understood how is that representative? And why are none of those intelligent Shanghai people ever here on the forum, under any flag, german, US or UK?

Because China is too big.

 

[notsuperstitious]

Because China is too big.

Here comes a Shanghai student!

 

[shuttler]

Not only Shanghai tops the chart again, Shanghai has also improved the score over 2009

..................2012................2009
Math.............613...................600
Read.............570...................556
Sci................580...................575

2009: Programme for International Student Assessment - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

and our Macao is also doing well!