US adults score below average on worldwide test

[silverpig]

Read:

If you guys would look at the link provided:
http://www.oecd.org/site/piaac/SkillsOutlook_2013_ebook.pdf

You'd see that nearly every country that is ranking above us is small, homogenous, and does not promote immigration as liberally as the United States. It's not fair to compare the US to some small white bread nation with 5 million people.

We have 300m+ citizens that come from hugely diverse backgrounds. It's very easy for a small country to maintain a high standard of education when they have a small and economically similar population. Educational systems can be tweaked and standardized and still be effective for their cookie cutter population.

You know how internet forums have trolls? These research organizations have them too. And they release stuff like this. It's a ridiculously unfair survey.

Compare the US to equally diverse (both economically and culturally) large nations (150m+) and you'll find the US ranks near or at the top.

Check out my post just above.

The US is not the most diverse nation there, and doesn't suffer from the immigration problem that drags scores down as much as others.

And even taking that out, the US' scores for native born and native language speakers is still lower than all of the countries above it on the list.


Also, culturally diverse countries of 150M+ population? Which would those be exactly?

1	 China[8]	1,360,370,000	October 8, 2013	19.1%
2	 India	        1,234,860,000	October 8, 2013	17.4%
3	 US      	316,816,000	October 8, 2013	4.45%
4	 Indonesia	237,641,326	May 1, 2010	3.34%
5	 Brazil	        201,032,714	July 1, 2013	2.82%
6	 Pakistan	184,452,000	October 8, 2013	2.59%
7	 Nigeria	173,615,000	July 1, 2013	2.44%
8	 Bangladesh	152,518,015	July 16, 2012	2.14%

The study was for western industrialized nations with good education systems.

 

[schneiderguy]

Not surprising, we're a lot bigger than those top countries, and much of America is made up of simple country folk who just aren't as book smart.

Hint: it's not the "simple country folk" who drag our scores down.

 

[BoomerD]

Hint: it's not the "simple country folk" who drag our scores down.

Fucking great...YOU participated in the test...and even spelled your name wrong? 🙄

Way to go...drag down the national average all by yourself.

 

[JEDIYoda]

The test is biased against faith based education.

that was an ignorant statement -- even coming form you!

 

[Doppel]

Check out my post just above.

The US is not the most diverse nation there, and doesn't suffer from the immigration problem that drags scores down as much as others.

And even taking that out, the US' scores for native born and native language speakers is still lower than all of the countries above it on the list.


Also, culturally diverse countries of 150M+ population? Which would those be exactly?

1	 China[8]	1,360,370,000	October 8, 2013	19.1%
2	 India	        1,234,860,000	October 8, 2013	17.4%
3	 US      	316,816,000	October 8, 2013	4.45%
4	 Indonesia	237,641,326	May 1, 2010	3.34%
5	 Brazil	        201,032,714	July 1, 2013	2.82%
6	 Pakistan	184,452,000	October 8, 2013	2.59%
7	 Nigeria	173,615,000	July 1, 2013	2.44%
8	 Bangladesh	152,518,015	July 16, 2012	2.14%

The study was for western industrialized nations with good education systems.

I'm not reading a 400 page pdf, but when that includes India, is that a good cross-section? Is it including the despondent people in India who live in ditches? Is it including the Chinese people who make a living melting down old motherboards they find at land fills, or only those near city centers?

I have to say, there are a huge number of complete imbeciles in the US, but I truly struggle with the notion that a totally random American pulled out of 300M when pitted against a totally random individual from China is going to on average be less competent in some generic tests.

 

[Slew Foot]

 

[Hugo Drax]

America graduates a lot of Mediocre HS students and College students. We have our population of highly intelligent and motivated individuals, but a huge portion of our educational output is pretty mediocre.

Grade inflation, dumbing down curriculum to the lowest common denominator,teaching to the test, easy college to insure graduates, In addition to mediocre parenting in the US.

It does not take a rocket scientist to figure it out, just look around you in public places and in US college campuses.

 

[marvdmartian]

Walk around your average Walmart, K-Mart or Target store some time. Now tell me you're surprised! 🙄

 

[zinfamous]

Well duh! The stupid adults are the product of the same failed public school system that has our current students lagging behind the rest of the world.

Our public school system is far, far, far from failed.

 

[rh71]

we pay over $10k per year in school taxes alone. F this. I'd rather be ignorant to these facts.

 

[xj0hnx]

The traditional "conservative" political philosophy is that you don't want everyone to get a top education. Too much education is considered bad for the lower classes because it breeds discontent and leaves people unhappy with their lives as they work jobs that don't require a high level of education.

Bookmark this post for when in the future you wonder why people think you are a joke.

I suspect that part of the reason the US scores so low is that we intentionally don't do a good job of educating our future fast food workers. Why should we when they just have to press pictures on the cash register?

It's possible, but unknown, from the survey how well we are educating those who need the best possible education as they will become engineers, doctors, etc.

Yes, it's all part of the Conservative Directive to preselect people at birth for this fields, and track through their education and make sure they don't diverge from their predetermined field.

btw don't shoot the messenger. I didn't make up the conservative political philosophy, just stating what it traditionally has been.

The things that you type are so amazingly ignorant, you'd make a great fundamentalist Christian.

Link?

There's no way to http:// to the necrotic slush that fills his/her cranium.

 

[silverpig]

I'm not reading a 400 page pdf, but when that includes India, is that a good cross-section? Is it including the despondent people in India who live in ditches? Is it including the Chinese people who make a living melting down old motherboards they find at land fills, or only those near city centers?

I have to say, there are a huge number of complete imbeciles in the US, but I truly struggle with the notion that a totally random American pulled out of 300M when pitted against a totally random individual from China is going to on average be less competent in some generic tests.

Um, reading comprehension fail 🙂

The study didn't include India. It's just OECD which is basically Europe, US/Canada, Australia/NZ, and the developed Asian countries (Japan etc).

 

[bigi]

That's really a shocker. 🙄🙄🙄🙄

 

[Genx87]

Are we getting our moneys worth?

 

[Juddog]

Are we getting our moneys worth?

Ultimately the education model is going to move to a distributed one via the internet and the vast majority of teachers will become obsolete.

You can get a far better understanding of math by signing up with Khan Academy and queuing up the videos a few cycles and then doing the practice questions, then you can in the equivalent time in the classroom.

I envision the future of education to be one where most of the course material is taught electronically; it eliminates the need for kids to have a bunch of extra textbooks, teachers will have a role to supervise and walk children through the parts they don't understand and will be more akin to operators of the equipment. Costs will go down tremendously because of the reduction in overhead.

When you think about electronic education, when you have technology like the XBOX Kinect, you can really administer several classrooms remotely with one teacher and it can cover several subjects. It's only a matter of time.

 

[lxskllr]

Ultimately the education model is going to move to a distributed one via the internet and the vast majority of teachers will become obsolete.

You can get a far better understanding of math by signing up with Khan Academy and queuing up the videos a few cycles and then doing the practice questions, then you can in the equivalent time in the classroom.

I envision the future of education to be one where most of the course material is taught electronically; it eliminates the need for kids to have a bunch of extra textbooks, teachers will have a role to supervise and walk children through the parts they don't understand and will be more akin to operators of the equipment. Costs will go down tremendously because of the reduction in overhead.

When you think about electronic education, when you have technology like the XBOX Kinect, you can really administer several classrooms remotely with one teacher and it can cover several subjects. It's only a matter of time.

I like the flipped day paradigm of teaching. The kids learn on their own at home, then go to school to go over things with a teacher. That way the smart kids aren't held back, and the dummies don't drag everyone else down.

 

[Theb]

USA is #1. It says so right on this monster truck.

 

[Genx87]

Ultimately the education model is going to move to a distributed one via the internet and the vast majority of teachers will become obsolete.

You can get a far better understanding of math by signing up with Khan Academy and queuing up the videos a few cycles and then doing the practice questions, then you can in the equivalent time in the classroom.

I envision the future of education to be one where most of the course material is taught electronically; it eliminates the need for kids to have a bunch of extra textbooks, teachers will have a role to supervise and walk children through the parts they don't understand and will be more akin to operators of the equipment. Costs will go down tremendously because of the reduction in overhead.

When you think about electronic education, when you have technology like the XBOX Kinect, you can really administer several classrooms remotely with one teacher and it can cover several subjects. It's only a matter of time.

I think your idea is a fine one. The problem is convincing the teachers union and the politicians they control.

 

[Juddog]

I think your idea is a fine one. The problem is convincing the teachers union and the politicians they control.

I don't anticipate that going well...

Ultimately my experience in school was that they held the kids who were way above their level back, and the boosted the kids that were falling behind and spent extra time with them.

 

[BarkingGhostar]

I don't care what that test says. We put men on the moon, beat Hitler and Tojo, and have the NFL. Fuck the other countries. They can sit around and talk about what they aren't accomplishing.

 

[silverpig]

I like the flipped day paradigm of teaching. The kids learn on their own at home, then go to school to go over things with a teacher. That way the smart kids aren't held back, and the dummies don't drag everyone else down.

I like the idea too, however my wife is a teacher and she'll tell you that you can't get half the kids to come to class with a piece of paper they wrote their name on at home, let alone get them to do something new.

The "tutorial sessions" at school will consist of the kids coming in and saying "I didn't get it" or "It was hard" without even having looked at the material.

There will of course be a few exceptions, but most kids won't come prepared.

 

[Mr. Pedantic]

I like the flipped day paradigm of teaching. The kids learn on their own at home, then go to school to go over things with a teacher. That way the smart kids aren't held back, and the dummies don't drag everyone else down.

That would barely work for an Undergrad class, and most of them are there by their own will. Never mind what would happen with pre-adolescents, most of whom are there (largely) against their will.

 

[Engineer]

Are we getting our moneys worth?

That just follows general inflation. Not sure the point? Because teachers cost more because of inflation, there should be some sort of corresponding super jump in scores (especially when faced with today's parenting - or lack thereof)?

 

[Ruptga]

That just follows general inflation. Not sure the point? Because teachers cost more because of inflation, there should be some sort of corresponding super jump in scores (especially when faced with today's parenting - or lack thereof)?

Inflation-Adjusted

🙄

 

[Imp]

Meh. You're American. That's all you need In life.