The World's Best and Worst Schools

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The sky is still falling, folks...

The Economist: The World's Best and Worst School's

The race is not always to the richest
[SIZE=-2][FONT=verdana,geneva,arial,sans serif]Dec 6th 2007 [/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=-2][FONT=verdana,geneva,arial,sans serif]From The Economist print edition[/FONT][/SIZE]

[FONT=verdana,geneva,arial,sans serif][SIZE=-1]Money and effort aren't enough to impart the skills and knowledge needed in a cut-throat world[/SIZE][/FONT]

[FONT=verdana,geneva,arial,sans serif][SIZE=-1]SPOOKED by the effects of globalisation on their low-skilled citizens, rich countries have been pouring money and political energy into education. In the United States, it has been proclaimed that no child will be left behind. Whether this programme, launched by George Bush in 2002, has raised standards will be a big issue in the 2008 presidential election. Next year Britain will introduce ambitious new qualifications, combining academic and vocational study. For the industrial countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development ([SIZE=-1]OECD[/SIZE]), average spending on primary and secondary schooling rose by almost two-fifths in real terms between 1995 and 2004. [/SIZE][/FONT]

[FONT=verdana,geneva,arial,sans serif][SIZE=-1]Oddly, this has had little measurable effect. The latest report from the [SIZE=-1]OECD[/SIZE]'s Programme for International Student Assessment shows average attainment staying largely flat. This tome, just published, compares the reading, mathematical and scientific progress of 400,000 15-year-olds in the 30 [SIZE=-1]OECD [/SIZE]countries and 27 others, covering 87% of the world economy. Its predecessors in 2000 and 2003 focused on reading and maths respectively. This time science took centre stage.[/SIZE][/FONT]

[FONT=verdana,geneva,arial,sans serif][SIZE=-1]At the top are some old stars: Finland as usual did best for all-round excellence, followed by South Korea (which did best in reading) and Hong Kong; Canada and Taiwan were strong but slightly patchier, followed by Australia and Japan. At the bottom, Mexico, still the weakest performer in the [SIZE=-1]OECD[/SIZE], showed gains in maths; Chile did best in Latin America.[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=verdana,geneva,arial,sans serif][/FONT]
[FONT=verdana,geneva,arial,sans serif][SIZE=-1]There is bad news for the United States: average performance was poor by world standards. Its schools serve strong students only moderately well, and do downright poorly with the large numbers of weak students. A quarter of 15-year-olds do not even reach basic levels of scientific competence (against an [SIZE=-1]OECD[/SIZE] average of a fifth). According to Andreas Schleicher, the [SIZE=-1]OECD[/SIZE]'s head of education research, Americans are only now realising the scale of the task they face. Some individual states would welcome a separate assessment.[/SIZE][/FONT]

cont'd...