Wealthy Asian nations lead in education, studies find
Relatively wealthy Asian nations including South Korea and Singapore, as well as Hong Kong, led a ranking of international student achievement, a result that researchers said reflected a strong societal commitment to primary education.
Morocco and several Middle Eastern nations occupied the bottom of the rankings of fourth-grade student performances in reading, science and math, reflecting the challenges caused by poverty and relatively new educational systems, according to two Boston College-backed studies released on Tuesday.
The studies found that international student achievement generally has improved in the past decade as more nations have increased their focus on education, with top-performing Asian countries holding their lead in math and science and gaining ground in reading.
"In the beginning, when we were assessing the reading, they were not necessarily at the top of the charts," said Ina Mullis, a Boston College professor who worked on the studies. "A decade later they are."
The improvement reflects a focused effort both by parents to read more to their children in the home and official efforts to make school reading programs more rigorous, Mullis said.
The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study evaluated 63 countries' performance in science and math while the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study evaluated 49 nations' performance in reading.
Hong Kong, Russia and Finland recorded the top-three performances in fourth-grade reading, the studies found. In science, South Korea, Singapore and Finland led, with Singapore, South Korea and Finland leading in math.
The United States ranked sixth in fourth-grade reading, 11th in science and seventh in math.
Canada
Be the first to comment.
