Shanghai sits top of the world in all catagories of PISA 2009 assessment in 2009

[Speeder 2]

65 countries/economies, including all OECD countries and major countries & regions in the world , participated in the PISA 2009 assessment in 2009. The results just came out hours ago on 7 December 2010.


Shanghai region, selected to represent China, tops all 3 categories: Reading, Maths and Science. ,

Tamil Nadu & Himachal Pradesh, selected to represent India, was also tested.


Detail rankings are as follows ( I highlighted some important names):

READING RANKING

1 Shanghai China (556)
2 Korea (539)
3 Finland (536)
4 HongKong China (533)
5 Singapore (526)

6 Canada (524)
7 New Zealand (521)
8 Japan (520)
9 Australia (515)
10 Netherlands (508)

11 Belgium (506)
12 Norway (503)
13 Estonia (501)
14 Switzerland (501)
15 Poland (500)
16 Iceland (500)
17 US (500)
18 Liechtenstein (499)
19 Sweden (497)
20 Germany (497)


21 Ireland (496)
22 France (496)
23 Taipei, Chinese (495)
24 Denmark (495)
25 UK (494)
26 Hungary (494)
27 Portugal (489)
28 Macao, China (487)
29 Italy (486)
30 Latvia (484)



MATHS RANKING:

1 Shanghai China (600)
2 Singapore (562)
3 HongKong China (555)
4 Korea (546)
5 Taipei Chinese (543)

6 Finland (541)
7 Liechtenstein (536)
8 Switzerland (534)
9 Japan (529)
10 Canada (527)

11 Netherlands (526)
12 Macao China (525)
13 New Zealand (519)
14 Belgium (515)
15 Australia (514)
16 Germany (513)
17 Estonia (512)
18 Iceland (507)
19 Denmark (503)
20 Slovenia (501)

21 Norway (498)
22 France (497)
23 Slovak Rep (497)
24 Austria (496)
25 Poland (495)
26 Sweden (494)
27 Czech Rep (493)
28 UK (492)
29 Hungary (490)
30 Luxembourg (489)


SCIENCE RANKING:

1 Shanghai China (575)
2 Finland (554)
3 HongKong China (549)
4 Singapore (542)
5 Japan (539)

6 Korea (538)
7 New Zealand (532)
8 Canada (529)
9 Estonia (528)
10 Australia (527)


11 Netherlands (522)
12 Taipei Chinese (520)
13 Germany (520)
14 Liechtenstein (520)
15 Switzerland (517)
16 UK (514)
17 Slovenia (512)
18 Macao China (511)
19 Poland (508)
20 Ireland (508)

21 Belgium (507)
22 Hungary (503)
23 US (502)
24 Czech Rep (500)
25 Norway (500)
26 Denmark (499)
27 France (498)
28 Iceland (496)
29 Sweden (495)
30 Austria (494)



All test scores of Tamil Nadu & Himachal Pradesh, selected to represent India, are nowhere close to top 30 in all categories.


For details on PISA test, pls refer to OECD website: PISA 2009 Results: What Students Know and Can Do: Student Performance in Reading, Mathematics and Science (Volume I)

For related articles, check:

FT.com / Global Economy - Shanghai tops global state school rankings

Britain plummets down world education rankings behind Poland and Norway | Mail Online


Several key observations of mine:

Observation 1. Though Shanghai undoubtedly should be ranked aboive China's national average, the true average of China would be most likely within top 3 spots or even still at the global top spot, given Shanghai's test scores are way above the rest of the world by a large margin and Chinese average would not be that much lower than that margin ( or Shanghai's ) since China is a highly homogenous country.

Observation 2. Test scores of Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Austria, France and the UK have been adversely affected by their large populations of recent immigrants from other parts of the world. ( I just checked several Dutch and German blogs. People there have tore the roofs off, complaining about the average scores being affected by recent immigrants. And I agree).

Observation 3 . THINK: IQ : No need for you to calculate what's the correlation between PISA score and national average IQ (given slightly upward adjustments for countries in my Note 2). I think the answer is quite clear, isn't it?

 

[cera]

Shanghai getting those scores does not surprise me at all. However, since we have some india friends often visit here, I'd like to know in India which city kids receive best education. Is that Tamil Nadu & Himachal Pradesh?

 

[Kyusuibu Honbu]

The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) is a system of international assessments that focuses on 15-year-olds' capabilities in reading literacy, mathematics literacy, and science literacy.

Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) - Overview

Simple observation:primary and secondary education system suck here in India.
which was already noted and brought to attention.

Besides they could have chosen from Mumbai and New Delhi.

Tamil Nadu kids all they do is mug-up. ,don't know anything about Himachal Pradesh though.

 

[below_freezing]

already posted. these results are nearly meaningless though. the US, they'll just use cash to buy our best and brightest. students become test taking machines that spend 10-12 hours a day in school, nothing like the 6-7 hour garbage they have in US, i would be surprised if we didn't rank #1, though this ranking is meaningless. organization, a clear national direction, and equal opportunity are the key.

to get an idea of how important this result is, this ranking has not been published in any chinese newspaper or website. the only important part is we're better than the US.

i'm much more interested in the scientific articles Martian has posted.

 

[Martian2]

By the way, I'm out of the IQ discussion. I don't need any more heartburn. It's too divisive.

The PISA test results are an important snapshot of the education trends in China and the United States. They portend a future where China will provide serious competition to the United States in all technological fields. Think of Taiwan scaled up to Godzilla size.

 

[592257001]

hopefully not all of our bright youngsters will be lured to the US. I am pretty sure I am going back to Shanghai after I finish medical school here in Canada!

 

[Speeder 2]

Simple observation:primary and secondary education system suck here in India.

Agreed. I have no doubt, though, that 10 years later these badly educated 15-year-olds would somehow acquire mystical power to put India as the world's "knowledge superpower" as the world media always acclaimed for granted, in their words,...errr... " demographic dividends" , huh?

Besides they could have chosen from Mumbai and New Delhi.

I doubt, as PISA socres are highly correlated to the corresponding IQ scores - internationally generally accepted.

 

[Abhishek_]

I think I'm gonna move to Taiwan. Better for the future kids

 

[Speeder 2]

already posted. these results are nearly meaningless though. the US, they'll just use cash to buy our best and brightest. students become test taking machines that spend 10-12 hours a day in school, nothing like the 6-7 hour garbage they have in US, i would be surprised if we didn't rank #1, though this ranking is meaningless. organization, a clear national direction, and equal opportunity are the key.

to get an idea of how important this result is, this ranking has not been published in any chinese newspaper or website. the only important part is we're better than the US.

i'm much more interested in the scientific articles Martian has posted.

PISA doesn't ask you questions such as "who was the most famous English Poet of 18th century", etc. So PISA doesn't test your memory, but test
your critical thinking skills ( higher order thought process) by smartly analising and organising given info. Pasting a formula there doesn't count.

Therefore, no matter how you "train" for the test, the result would only be slightly better - marginal improvement.

Hence PISA reflects critical info on "effectiveness of a country's educational system" ( that's the official politically correct words; unofficially, it's mostly one's average IQ + a bit of education ) , and predicts in many aspects a country's competitiveness of immediate future ( think: ten years later those 15-year-olds would turn 25 ).

PISA might be unheard of in China, but it is THE authoritive standard for evaluating secondary-level students in OECD. A very big deal here for both educationers and govenements across the board!

Oh, i forgot several points :

1/ India's representive region scored well below top 50 out of 65 counties/regions. ( in accordance iwth her average IQ level)

2/ "Smart"Jewish state Israel ( 100% Jews) score well outside top 30 in all categories ( in the area of 40s in the ranking below all East Asains and Western Euroepans) - a big slam in the face of "Smart Jews " propaganda - fits very well with Richard Lynn's stats that average IQ of Israel = 92.

3/ Top 5 spots on Maths of PISA ( all East Asians) are almost identical as what Richard Lynn has named the top 5 highest IQ nations/regions.

4/ Steve Sailer just published a piece in his blog, generalising Shanghai's average IQ of 15-year-olds as about 112 according to this score.

 

[Speeder 2]

hopefully not all of our bright youngsters will be lured to the US. I am pretty sure I am going back to Shanghai after I finish medical school here in Canada!

Agreed but not to worry too much though , as according to Andreas Schleicher, special adviser on education to the OECD, that PISA actually tested 12 provinces in China apart from Shanghai. This is what he said:

“We have actually done Pisa in 12 of the provinces in China. Even in some of the very poor areas you get performance close to the OECD average.”

( source: FT.com / Global Economy - Shanghai tops global state school rankings)

So China's true PISA score is surely lower than Shanghai's. But as I said China could be still #1 as its internal difference is not as huge as that (the score differences) between Shanghai and the Second Place, in spite of the fact that Shanghai average GDP and spending on education per cap are way below the lowest of OECD countries. Unspoken words are China would score even slightly higher after she reaches OECD standard.

 

[CardSharp]

hopefully not all of our bright youngsters will be lured to the US. I am pretty sure I am going back to Shanghai after I finish medical school here in Canada!

Good luck China's medical system still needs a lot of help and I think the Canadian heath care does a pretty good job.

 

[SomeGuy]

Observation 2. Test scores of Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Austria, France and the UK have been adversely affected by their large populations of recent immigrants from other parts of the world. ( I just checked several Dutch and German blogs. People there have tore the roofs off, complaining about the average scores being affected by recent immigrants. And I agree).

Not all immigrant populations have adverse effect on test scores.
For example in the UK, it's a well known fact that, on average, Chinese AND Indian students do much better in secondary education than their white counterparts.

 

[CardSharp]

Not all immigrant populations have adverse effect on test scores.
For example in the UK, it's a well known fact that, on average, Chinese AND Indian students do much better in secondary education than their white counterparts.

Oh dear can I respectfully ask that we don't start another 20 page debate on IQ and race?

 

[Martian2]

hopefully not all of our bright youngsters will be lured to the US. I am pretty sure I am going back to Shanghai after I finish medical school here in Canada!

Are you sure that's a rational decision? Many of us thought that we would go back, but we never did.

Life is more comfortable here and the competition is weak. It is not that hard to outperform academically in the West. In Shanghai, I shudder at the thought.

 

[below_freezing]

Are you sure that's a rational decision? Many of us thought that we would go back, but we never did.

Life is more comfortable here and the competition is weak. It is not that hard to outperform academically in the West. In Shanghai, I shudder at the thought.

after medical school, maybe not rational, in north american system.

but if you majored in any engineering or science, you'll be a lab serf working for the white man for 10-15 USD per hour in a land where average prices are for your bosses and not you. lots of my father's friends in college went to the US for their PhDs (!!) and became scientific serfs for the white man.

in China he was a chemical engineer. He has 15 years of experience in petrochemicals and transition metal catalysis with over 10 patents to his name. A very qualified engineer by any measure. He went to the US in 1989, and got a PhD in physical chemistry in 1994, then took a postdoc position at CMU... where he stayed until now. CMU hasn't paid him in 6 months so he quit. Now he's working minimum wage writing patents for this no name company on the verge of collapse.

so why be a lab serf to the white man? that's what i don't understand. My father told him to come back to China, at worst he can get a process engineer position, better than minimum wage being a backroom slave. But he can't. He forgot most his chinese, his family became americanized, now he is stuck being a slave for the whites and can't even come back to china.