Tuesday, December 11, 2012

yong zhao - numbers


numbers-can-lie-what-timss-and-pisa-truly-tell-us-if-anything/


ConclusionsI have put forth a lot of numbers of different sorts from a variety of sources. Taken together, these numbers suggest to me the following:
So far all international test scores measure the extent to which an education system effectively transmits prescribed content.
In this regard, the U.S. education system is a failure and has been one for a long time.
But the successful transmission of prescribed content contributes little to economies that require creative and entrepreneurial individual talents and in fact can damage the creative and entrepreneurial spirit. Thus high test scores of a nation can come at the cost of entrepreneurial and creative capacity.