How many of these countries have freedom though? Only one: Amurica.
Lol, I c what you did.
How many of these countries have freedom though? Only one: Amurica.
Most of my higher education in the US has consisted of listening to a professor talk on their soap box and then reading the book. 90% of my classes probably could just be exams and a book, no teachers. Lower education is different though, those teachers actually taught you something.
We'd still be just as low on the list, the blue states isn't gonna help do much. By that I mean even taking away the red states the overall edcuation system in the U.S is still shit, i'm surprised we listed at all.
Edit:I agree with what gambit above me said.
Absolutely not. My high school in NJ was fantastic with caring teachers and an involved staff that ensured a great experience. I believe the top ten states at education would crack the top ten if you eliminated the bottom forty. Still not much of an achievement for the United States as a whole, but making the list is a cool surprise.
It's a bit more complicated than that.
While it's absolutely true that the US has most of the absolutely best universities in the world, you can look at the UK which also has quite some if you take into account the population differences.
I would guess that the variance of quality of education is higher in the US than in many other western countries though. (or maybe not, just basing this on what I know of the Nordic countries...)
And if you compare a 4 year university education in the US and in Sweden, they are very different. If you would go to a business school in Sweden (which used to be 4 years, now pretty much everything is 3 year BSc + 2 year MSc), you only take classes in business/economics/etc (unless you take extra classes in other subjects).
This usually means that an average person coming from the US to Sweden after only 4 years of college would most likely not be as qualified as his/her Swedish peers in the field.
That's what I've heard about Swedes going to an average American university for 4 years and then coming back.
You have to remember that's it's probably more common than not to take a year off, or even more, after you've finished your lower education in many countries, such as Sweden. So this doesn't mean that Americans are less qualified at a certain age at all.
However, If we look at higher higher education I'm pretty sure that the US would qualify as the absolute best.
Quantifying and comparing higher education overall is probably a lot harder than lower education.
edit: Correct me if I'm wrong on anything, some of it might just be speculation.
Lol @ South Korea and Japan.
Yeah, great education systems there. A complete focus on rote memorization and a progression system where your life is fucking over if you mess up on a single test.
I'm writing as someone who is currently getting a doctorate in education (in Curriculum & Instruction) and who is specifically interested in researching international efforts in education reform.
What everyone needs to know is that while PISA rankings have become ways of comparing countries' educational quality, that's a very dangerous and misleading interpretation.
Despite its name and intended goal, PISA should not be interpreted as measuring the quality of education systems, but rather countries' levels of economic inequality and poverty. Researchers have been able to successfully predict countries' PISA scores simply by accounting for the GDP per capita, the percentage of youth in the population, and the degree of inequality in the country – without considering a single variable directly linked to education
If you're interested on understanding what world rankings like these really mean, and what it means for our educational system, check out my blog post on the subject here.
And if you don't want to take my word for it, read anything by David Berliner.
You missed out the most shocking offender of most East Asian education systems: the lack of any focus on creativity or critical thinking whatsoever.
That and the cram schools of course. Seeing students finally going home at 10pm is fucked up. But knowing they'll be up until 2-4am finishing homework is even worse.
You missed out the most shocking offender of most East Asian education systems: the lack of any focus on creativity or critical thinking whatsoever.
That and the cram schools of course. Seeing students finally going home at 10pm is fucked up. But knowing they'll be up until 2-4am finishing homework is even worse.
Maybe you live in a well off area? All that golden hello and recruitment drives for teachers exist because there is a shortage of math and science teachers. Let alone good ones. I don't think it's an isolated problem on my end. I welcome the new GCSE in computing, but only a third of current teachers are qualified to teach it... hopefully they're able to train enough new good ones to make it a success. And my school was fairly middle of the road, there are worse, but mostly better ones in the area (faith or grammar schools)or, as is more likely, you just went to a crap school. we had great math and english teachers in my school.
now that I think about it, we had great teachers in all subjects bar religious studies.
Then they do it again several hours later. It's amazing kids hold up as well as they do sometimes.
Most of these lists really full of fail. They fall into the same trap that schools do of trying to assess the quality of education using quantitative numbers. It's certainly valid in some respects but in the case like this? It's just messy.
So why are other Nordic countries so much behind Finland? Pretty sure that for example Norway has higher GDP per capita, even less poor people than Finland and about the same amount of young people. Still these is noticeable difference when it comes to PISA ranking.
how does anyone keep saying "america is the best country in the world" etc etc? seriously.
i hope macuser doesn't read this post he will kick my ass
In effect, these high-ranking countries test only their Top 10% students, which skews results significantly. I don't agree with the US' emphasis on standardized testing, but at least it's not discriminatory.
how does anyone keep saying "america is the best country in the world" etc etc? seriously.
i hope macuser doesn't read this post he will kick my ass
Why do you think so many people from Korea, Japan, Europe, etc come to the US to go to college?
We have the best higher education in the work and college enrollment is going up. Why do you think so many people from Korea, Japan, Europe, etc come to the US to go to college?
IIRC, U.S. universities are much easier to get into than those in their home country.
I don't necessarily disagree with the rest of your post but that part is a bit incorrect. Most foreign students in the US are from places like China and India...
In fact having an american diploma, even from an Ivy League school, can actually harm your employment chances in Japan and Korea... The whole recruitment system is integrated with the local universities (and another reason there's absolutely no expectaction of academic excellence there, if you're from a good uni, you get a good job, no one gives a shit about your grades or even your major)
You're behind Russia. Whats going on over there?
I don't necessarily disagree with the rest of your post but that part is a bit incorrect. Most foreign students in the US are from places like China and India...
In fact having an american diploma, even from an Ivy League school, can actually harm your employment chances in Japan and Korea... The whole recruitment system is integrated with the local universities (and another reason there's absolutely no expectaction of academic excellence there, if you're from a good uni, you get a good job, no one gives a shit about your grades or even your major)
We have the best higher education in the world and college enrollment is going up. Why do you think so many people from Korea, Japan, Europe, etc come to the US to go to college?
I actually think this was the case in US a decade ago but recently there has been so many articles how bad the standars are in some subjects all around US, not just poor inner city schools. Not to mention you are selling your education system for private business, they will make things only worse.I wish they released one of these rankings for educational systems ranked by country and economic factors.
I can't help but feel one of the reasons the US gets ranked so poorly is because the difference in educational standards between wealthy classes and the poor is so drastic. I wouldn't be surprised if, accounting for socio-economic status, the US had one of the highest ranked education systems in the world for the high income families, and one of the lowest in the world for low income families.
While I'm not detracting from your point: American and British universities carry infinitely more prestige than schools in East Asian countries (and indeed, in any country.) If your family has money, there's a good chance you're getting shipped off to one of those schools by default.
We have the best higher education in the world and college enrollment is going up. Why do you think so many people from Korea, Japan, Europe, etc come to the US to go to college?
Leeroy3101 said:Report seems to conveniently ignore that The United States tries its best to educate all individuals from different ability levels. I'm pretty sure no other education system across the world attempts to do what we do. This is why I hate these education system rankings.
We have the best higher education in the world and college enrollment is going up. Why do you think so many people from Korea, Japan, Europe, etc come to the US to go to college?
Whatever, USA has Freedom.
You can't grade Freedom
Lol what??? This entire list is invalid if these top countries are doing that.
The whole point of the Finnish system is to make sure no one gets left behind, not to train super students:Report seems to conveniently ignore that The United States tries its best to educate all individuals from different ability levels. I'm pretty sure no other education system across the world attempts to do what we do. This is why I hate these education system rankings.