Wait for blacks to scream "Racially-biased testing!!!!"
- From: "Leftists = traitors" <rander3127@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: 12 Jun 2006 13:36:02 -0700
When they fail MISERABLY under an "Asian" scheme. If whites are
falling behind orientals,
you can Imagine how far behind blacks and latinos are.
US looks to Asia to boost grades in math, science
US schools are considering emulating math and science teaching systems
in Asia that produce better results, amid concerns over a drop in
performance of American students in the two key subjects.
Average American math scores trail significantly behind nearly all
countries in the Asia Pacific region, studies show.
Adding urgency to this finding is a recently released annual US
education report which found that American middle and high school
students have not shown any improvement in science over the past five
years.
A really worrying trend, experts say, even as American scientific
research is admired around the world.
"There are grave concerns in the United States about the quality of
math and science education in American schools," said a new report by
experts at The Asia Society, a US-based institution striving to bridge
the US-Asia gap.
It outlined key ways in which China, and East Asia more broadly, have
been successful in producing higher student achievement in math and
science and underlined US "need to benchmark best practices wherever we
can find them."
Many of the successful Asian education systems were seen to have strong
core curricula, rigorous teacher preparation, examinations that
motivate students and schools that were intensely academically focused.
"The United States can no more afford to isolate itself educationally
than it can economically or in terms of national security," said the
report compiled after a forum between education leaders from the United
States and China, and based on research on Asian achievement in math
and science.
Vivien Stewart, vice-president of the Asia Society, said the United
States needed a "globally oriented world-standard education" to prepare
its young people for leadership and competition.
"While the United States has much to learn from other countries, it
simultaneously has an important role to play in improving education
around the world -- a role that is an increasingly important part of
its international engagement," she said.
The report, which largely focused on China's education system, said the
country was bound by national standards in math and science, which
drove coherent textbook content, teacher preparation and professional
development.
In the United States, there is a great deal of variation in the rigor
and quality of standards across educational jurisdictions, it said.
In China, far higher proportions of science and math teachers have
degrees in their disciplines than their American counterparts.
Specialist science teachers are employed to teach students as early as
third grade (eight years old), unlike in the United States where most
primary teachers are "generalists" typically responsible for all
subjects.
In China, biology, chemistry, and physics, as well as algebra and
geometry are mandatory for completion of high school, the report said.
In the United States, students are allowed to choose among different
levels of learning and can opt out of more advanced courses.
It was noted that math and science play a major role in the highly
competitive entrance examinations for Chinese universities.
Other differences: the Chinese school year is a full month longer at
the secondary level than American schools and overall Chinese students
spend twice as many hours studying as their American peers.
The report cited a survey, "Trends in International Mathematics and
Science Study (TIMSS)," which showed the United States trailing Japan,
Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, South Korea and Australia for average
maths score in the eighth grade.
In science, another TIMSS survey showed that a large percentage of
eighth-grade US students exhibited a high level of confidence in their
ability to learn the subject, yet only a small percent achieved an
advanced score.
"Interestingly, student attitudes show little relation to student
achievement in either science or mathematics," the report said.
"So what we are saying in this report is that there is really quite a
bit of innovation for US leaders to learn from when they size up these
(American) mediocre performances in comparison to China and other Asian
nations," said Michael Levine, executive director of Asia Society's
national campaign for international education in the schools.
© 2006 AFP
.
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