No offense, but now you are comparing a single state to a country, Russia. As a country are we ahead of the Russian Federation? And no offense to Finland, are they the country we are trying to compete for dominance in the 21st century? Actually, I agree with you, the best students in the US are as good if not better than the best anywhere, however, we really need to bring up our average to world standard or we may not be a world power in another generation . Peace.
I guess I should have explained myself better. I picked those two specific examples for a reason. Russia for math because Russia has classically been a mathematical heavyweight. Finland for the others because Finland's educational system is legendary. Yeah, the USA average is pretty bad. I think state-by-state differences are even more shocking.
Canada maintains a high immigration rate and high education standards with the majority of students in public schools. There isn't really much excuse for poor standards in the US other then misplaced priorities and the monetizing of the education system ( pay to play ). And I'm not convinced that the rich kids going to private US schools are really the high achievers that some believe on here. Seems to be a lot of hype and less substance in the US these days, which might motivate kids to cut corners on their education.
The developed countries could learn a lot from others and stop telling everyone how marvellous they are. Even tiny Singapore outshines most. Not just in education but also crime stats etc. Here is a trader's stats from there. Those Phd's performance of about 30% per year looks really pedestrian comparatively.
Thanks for that PISA link. I was looking for it. For anyone who wants to know what it takes to make it to 7th place in Math, Table 3 page 23, here is a documentary where 3 Welsh teenagers spend 3 days in the South Korean school system. Documentary Episodes: 1. School Swap: Korea Style, Episode 1 Full BBC Documentary 2016 2. School Swap: Korea Style, Episode 2 Full BBC Documentary 2016 Episode 2 repeats some content after 29 minutes so you don't have to see it after this point. What the documentary shows is the value system of S. Korea, and probably the other 6 countries which score better, is completely different from western countries. In S. Korea, students spend many more hours studying than western students. They get up at 6am and study until midnight. They only get 6 hours of sleep. I think it's 6 days a week. I think they must sleep all day on Sunday. For after school, parents themselves pay for private tutoring which is expensive. School libraries are open very late. They must have a low crime rate. S. Korean parents push their kids harder. I would not recommend this system for any students. 6 hours a day of sleep is just not enough. The documentary shows this several times. 9 hours of sleep is what most people, especially young people, require. So here is the general formula everybody should go by: 24 hours - 2*0.75 commute - 1 wash/breakfast - 1 lunch - 1 P/E - 1.5 dinner/wash - 1 any recreation - 9 sleep = 8 hours a day for study I think 8 hours a day for study is probably the maximum any student should have to do. Forcing students, any student, to get only 6 hours a day of sleep for years is, in my opinion, wrong. Even so, with the western value system, can anyone imagine this would happen here? With television, movies, game consoles, etc..., not to mention drugs, crime, does anyone think there will be any major improvements here? This American documentary shows what is happening all over America, especially in the northeast. The comparison is striking. How can America simultaneously overcome the crime, the drugs, the poverty and completely overhaul its value system?
Jim Rodgers - you know that famous trader that worked with Soros. Well, he has traveled around the world on a motorcycle, holding the world record for times around the world. So he knows what people are like all over the world. He moved to Singapore so his kids would have a competitive edge with education. They had to learn to speak Cantonese and says they do more home work in a day than they did in a week than they did in a whole semester in the states.
While the kids in the West idolize such losers as Billy the Kid, sundry outlaws etc. they will be losers too thanks to Hollywood and the crap on TV.
We are importing smart people from Asia by the bucketload, here in Seattle. Not enough Americans learn how to do these techy things. Primary and secondary schools are inferior in many neighborhoods. I travel frequently by car and usually stay in a Hampton, Hilton, or Hyatt. Nearly every Thursday and Friday during the school year, I see an athletic team staying in the hotel, usually soccer. These kids are obviously out of school for a couple of days at an "away" game. Sometimes I ask them where they are from and it is often several states away. I wonder about this. When I was a child, I'm sure my parents would have sent me to school if there were a nuclear attack. Other than having a fever, there were no excuses for not attending in my household. Same thing with homework: I had to do it, period.
Subjects like math are not impinged upon American kids because it is boring. Boring as hell. The problem is the way we teach kids. Rote memorization is crappy old nonsense, which most schools still employ. But kids today have too many distractions now to learn by that method. Used to be that to solve certain math problems, you had to know those multiply tables. These days? Give the kids a calculator, or cell phone with a calculator in it, and all is well. They pass. So long as you allow cell/smartphones in a classroom, there is no learning. Why? Because it is all looked up on the Interwebs.