The National Governors Association is looking toward measuring U.S education against top-performing education systems in countries such as Canada, Finland, Japan, Singapore, and South Korea.
Supporters of international yardsticks contend there is only so much that can be gained from comparing states to one another, according to a recent education article.
Knowing what is happening in the classrooms of top-performing countries could well give schools in the United States the tools to revamp instruction and ultimately help increase global economic competitiveness.
A report scheduled for release in the fall of 2008 will identify best practices in other countries that could be applied in the United States. I look forward to the report and its recommendations. It is hard to find fault with using global best practices to improve the education of our children.
I have a concern with this. Many of those countries weed out low performing students. They are also very competitive with a lot of parental support. The students in China study daily, have no free time, and if they don't make the grade, they don't continue at that school. I agree with parental support and self discipline, but I have a problem comparing us to those countries when we are comparing apples to oranges. We have issues with discipline in our schools that they would never tolerate. Hmmm...