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Best reading scores | ||
Tags: School Education | Reading | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| HenryMW Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 4956 days ago 125 posts - 179 votes  Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, French Studies: Modern Hebrew | Message 9 of 25 09 December 2010 at 1:30am | IP Logged | ||
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I would be curious to see how different American states do compared individually. In the US, the federal government cannot tell the states to do anything. The best it can do is bribe them (something it does fairly often). The bribery is a part of the problem but not the whole problem. I suspect some states score well, and others (such as my home state) score not as well.
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| jimbo Tetraglot Senior Member Canada Joined 6076 days ago 469 posts - 642 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin, Korean, French Studies: Japanese, Latin | Message 10 of 25 09 December 2010 at 2:26am | IP Logged | ||
Unfortunately for the slackers, these universities accept students from around the world. It isn't like the world is becoming LESS competitive. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Juаn Senior Member Colombia Joined 5127 days ago 727 posts - 1830 votes Speaks: Spanish* | Message 11 of 25 09 December 2010 at 3:57am | IP Logged | ||
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And yet the average real per-capita income of Americans is higher than that of most of the countries that outperformed them in this test, not to mention the prestige and output of their centers of high education and research.
To which I might add, is the purpose of childhood to score highly on a standardized test? What about happiness, self-fulfillment or simply merriment? I certainly don't share Americans' enthusiasm for sports or their attitude towards culture and personal edification or any of the reasons given for their "failure" to score higher grades, but to turn life around and make boys and girls give up childhood in order to suit a test would be imbecilic and would rob them of something uniquely valuable that no degree on a wall will ever restore to them. Anything that is worth learning one learns out of self initiative. 7 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| jimbo Tetraglot Senior Member Canada Joined 6076 days ago 469 posts - 642 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin, Korean, French Studies: Japanese, Latin | Message 12 of 25 09 December 2010 at 4:27am | IP Logged | ||
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Averages are great. If I have one foot in boiling water and one foot in freezing water, on average, I'm OK.
What we need to look at, probably in another discussion forum, is income distribution and where we are going, not where we are now or where we have been. Places like South Korea and Taiwan have gone from Africa poor to pretty wealthy within a generation with a decent income distribution. A broad focus on education was a big part of this. The reason I posted the NYT article earlier on THIS forum was because there have been discussions about the inefficiency of Chinese characters and whether they hold back the spread of literacy. My view is they haven't and I found it entertaining that students in Shanghai managed to beat everyone in reading. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Juаn Senior Member Colombia Joined 5127 days ago 727 posts - 1830 votes Speaks: Spanish* | Message 13 of 25 09 December 2010 at 4:39am | IP Logged | ||
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Here's data for real median income:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Ranking_of_Househ old_Income Truth of the matter is, you cannot purchase economic development by simply investing more in education. Institutions are far more important. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| jimbo Tetraglot Senior Member Canada Joined 6076 days ago 469 posts - 642 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin, Korean, French Studies: Japanese, Latin | Message 14 of 25 09 December 2010 at 5:38am | IP Logged | ||
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Ah, that's much better. Even on a PPP basis.
Pity the data is a bit stale (from 2004) but I like where you are going with this. I have The Economist the World in 2011 right here. They have some GDP per head numbers on a real and PPP adjusted basis. (Sorry, no median income numbers which would be better.) United States $48,010 $48,010 <-- Basis for comparison. No need for adjustment. Taiwan $20,040 $40,290 <-- PPP adjusted South Korea $22,050 $31,400 <-- PPP adjusted Hong Kong $30,820 $48,040 <-- PPP adjusted China $4,800 $8,390 <-- PPP adjusted Japan $44,440 $34,850 <-- PPP adjusted Edited by jimbo on 09 December 2010 at 5:39am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| HenryMW Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 4956 days ago 125 posts - 179 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, French Studies: Modern Hebrew | Message 15 of 25 09 December 2010 at 6:33am | IP Logged | ||
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Definitely off the language topic, but you opened the door. Japan, Korea, and Taiwan have all managed to get to affluence under American guarantees of security (and real fighting in one case). It wasn't free.
GDP per capita is a complex function. Free markets have more to do with it. Education is only one part. The Soviet Union is a good example of this. Back on topic, I didn't realize that there was a big discussion on the effect of Chinese characters on literacy. They set similar literacy standards to ours and achieve them. Their students probably have to put in more effort to get there, but they still get there. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| jimbo Tetraglot Senior Member Canada Joined 6076 days ago 469 posts - 642 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin, Korean, French Studies: Japanese, Latin | Message 16 of 25 09 December 2010 at 6:49am | IP Logged | ||
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Sometimes people will argue that the characters are a pain and should gotten rid of or that they are holding the country back, pinyin should/will replace the characters, simplified characters are better for the spread of literacy, etc. That is why I found the reading PISA reading results interesting.
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