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Forget Finland. What’s China’s secret to success?

9:43 am December 7, 2010, by Maureen Downey

The real story out of this year’s PISA results released this morning will be the remarkable performance by students in Shanghai, who took the international benchmark tests for the first time and outscored the world, suggesting that the Chinese model of rigorous education may hold lessons for the rest of us.

One of those lessons won’t go over well in many Georgia schools: Less sports and more studying. I question whether it is possible to recreate our school system in the Chinese model, which is a no-frills, academic-focused approach that will likely seem grim to many U.S. parents. Whenever I go to hearings on school reforms, parents ask for more arts classes, not fewer.

Yet, what has allowed the Chinese students to leap ahead is a singular focus on core academics. I am certain that many people would argue that these students lose out when the arts education is reduced for more math review.

As a parent, I have to ask if I want my own kids at desks for hours on core basics with few opportunities for music, art, drama and band.

Is that what it takes to lead the world? And if so, where does it lead to ultimately?

Here is the New York Times’ take on the how and why of the incredible Chinese success on this highly regarded international test:

American officials and Europeans involved in administering the test in about 65 countries acknowledged that the scores from Shanghai — an industrial powerhouse with some 20 million residents and scores of modern universities that is a magnet for the best students in the country — are by no means representative of all of China.

About 5,100 15-year-olds in Shanghai were chosen as a representative cross-section of students in that city. In the United States, a similar number of students from across the country were selected as a representative sample for the test.

Experts noted the obvious difficulty of using a standardized test to compare countries and cities of vastly different sizes. Even so, they said the stellar academic performance of students in Shanghai was noteworthy, and another sign of China’s rapid modernization.

The results also appeared to reflect the culture of education there, including greater emphasis on teacher training and more time spent on studying rather than extracurricular activities like sports.

“Wow, I’m kind of stunned, I’m thinking Sputnik,” said Chester E. Finn Jr., who served in President Ronald Reagan’s Department of Education, referring to the groundbreaking Soviet satellite launching. Mr. Finn, who has visited schools all across China, said, “I’ve seen how relentless the Chinese are at accomplishing goals, and if they can do this in Shanghai in 2009, they can do it in 10 cities in 2019, and in 50 cities by 2029.”

The test, the Program for International Student Assessment, known as PISA, was given to 15-year-old students by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a Paris-based group that includes the world’s major industrial powers.

In math, the Shanghai students performed in a class by themselves, outperforming second-place Singapore, which has been seen as an educational superstar in recent years. The average math scores of American students put them below 30 other countries.

PISA scores are on a scale, with 500 as the average. Two-thirds of students in participating countries score between 400 and 600. On the math test last year, students in Shanghai scored 600, in Singapore 562, in Germany 513, and in the United States 487.

In reading, Shanghai students scored 556, ahead of second-place Korea with 539. The United States scored 500 and came in 17th, putting it on par with students in the Netherlands, Belgium, Norway, Germany, France, the United Kingdom and several other countries.

In science, Shanghai students scored 575. In second place was Finland, where the average score was 554. The United States scored 502 — in 23rd place — with a performance indistinguishable from Poland, Ireland, Norway, France and several other countries.

Mark Schneider, a commissioner of the Department of Education’s research arm in the George W. Bush administration, who returned from an educational research visit to China on Friday, said he had been skeptical about some PISA results in the past. But Mr. Schneider said he considered the accuracy of these results to be unassailable.

“The technical side of this was well regulated, the sampling was O.K., and there was no evidence of cheating,” he said.

Mr. Schneider, however, noted some factors that may have influenced the outcome. For one thing, Shanghai is a huge migration hub within China. Students are supposed to return to their home provinces to attend high school, but the Shanghai authorities could increase scores by allowing stellar students to stay in the city, he said. And Shanghai students apparently were told the test was important for China’s image and thus were more motivated to do well, he said.

“Can you imagine the reaction if we told the students of Chicago that the PISA was an important international test and that America’s reputation depended on them performing well?” Mr. Schneider said. “That said, China is taking education very seriously. The work ethic is amazingly strong.”

If Shanghai is a showcase of Chinese educational progress, America’s showcase would be Massachusetts, which has routinely scored higher than all other states on America’s main federal math test in recent years.

But in a 2007 study that correlated the results of that test with the results of an international math exam, Massachusetts students scored behind Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan, and Japan. Shanghai did not participate in the test.

A 259-page Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development report on the latest Pisa results notes that throughout its history, China has been organized around competitive examinations. “Schools work their students long hours every day, and the work weeks extend into the weekends,” it said.

Chinese students spend less time than American students on athletics, music and other activities not geared toward success on exams in core subjects. Also, in recent years, teaching has rapidly climbed up the ladder of preferred occupations in China, and salaries have risen. In Shanghai, the authorities have undertaken important curricular reforms, and educators have been given more freedom to experiment.

By Maureen Downey, for the Get Schooled blog

113 comments Add your comment

j nes

December 7th, 2010
9:52 am

I think the success in China is driven by the dire economic situation many Chinese families find themselves in. In China, being poor does not mean receiving government assistance to the point of comfortable living. America might have some poor people, but I know students that qualify for free lunches that also own X-boxes and cell phones. These are the same students that complain about not being able to type an essay because they do not own a computer. How many Chinese parents do you think would buy their children gaming devices and social tools before investing in their education?

Johnny Too Good

December 7th, 2010
10:04 am

2 different cultures, each with their own values and mentalities

unfortunately, in America it doesnt always appear that education isnt very high up on our list of important things

Atlanta1

December 7th, 2010
10:04 am

j nes – your accessment is ‘fair’. I have traveled to China many-many times. The motivation there is very different than here. First and foremost, what we consider poor, most in China would love to have. Their motivation is simple – education = a better life. And frankly, being educated is ‘cultural’. School is appreciated there. It beats getting up and going to the farm or the factory. Remember, there are 1.3B Chinese. That’s four times the size of our population and while with a solid economy, one that doesn’t come close to giving all of their people a life remotely close to what we live. If you have the chance to learn in that society – ‘you learn’ and improve yourself and your ‘very thank-you’.

December 7th, 2010
10:14 am

Manipulation of numbers and statistics, filtering of who gets an education and takes the tests, etc.

j nes

December 7th, 2010
10:18 am

@ me:
Don’t the Atlanta Public Schools do the same thing?

high school teacher

December 7th, 2010
10:20 am

We cannot change education in America until we can change the culture. However, we won’t change the culture until we change education; a catch-22.

I think that j nes really hit the nail on the head.

ridiculous