For the second time, students in Shanghai, China, have come out on top of the global Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) test rankings. The newly released PISA results stem from the 2012 exams, which tested the mathematics, reading, and science skills of more than half a million secondary school students from 65 countries.
The PISA test is conducted every three years by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). In addition to Shanghai’s top ranking, this year’s tests showed East Asian economies in general (including Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and South Korea) outperforming the rest of the world.
The city of Shanghai was ranked separately from the rest of China, and was the only Chinese city to be ranked, as not enough data from other regions of China was available. Some educational experts have pointed out that the education system in Shanghai is very different from the rest of the country, and is far more effective.
Shanghai’s schools are said to be better funded and their teachers better paid than in other parts of China. Kong Linghuai, a professor and expert on Shanghai’s education system, says that the city’s success can be attributed to a mixture of “traditional elements and modern elements.”
Traditional elements, according to Kong, include a high cultural value placed on education, while modern elements include an evolving curriculum, a focus on improving underachieving schools, and an emphasis on teacher training.
Shanghai’s performance on this year’s PISA tests has gone a long way toward ending stereotypes about education in China. The belief that the Chinese school system is based on rote memorization is becoming outdated, as the government has been making consistent efforts to shift away from this paradigm.
According to the PISA report, this year’s findings reflect the fact that students excel when they have a measure of control over their own learning.
“Practice and hard work go a long way towards developing each student’s potential,” noted the report, “but students can only achieve at the highest levels when they believe that they are in control of their success.”
The full 2012 PISA results can be found here.
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Written by Carla Drumhiller Smith