In all three subjects,
Shanghai students demonstrated knowledge and skills equivalent to at
least one additional year of schooling than their peers in countries
like the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom.
The findings are part of
the 2012 Program for International Student Assessment (or PISA) -- a
leading survey of education systems conducted every three years by the
Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development
(OECD), a grouping of the world's richest economies.
More than half a million
students, aged 15 and 16, sat a two-hour exam last year as part of the
study. The pupils came from 65 countries representing 80% of the global
economy.
East Asian economies performed best overall, claiming seven of the top ten places across all three subjects.
In math, Shanghai had the
highest score with 613 points -- the equivalent of nearly three years
of schooling above the average for the 34 OECD member countries of 494,
and six years above Peru which ranked last with a score of 368. The city
also came top in 2009 rankings.
Singapore came second in mathematics with a score of 573, followed by Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, and Macau.
But the math performance of most countries has not improved since the PISA tests were launched more than a decade ago. Around
60% of the 64 countries who participated in previous studies performed
at the same level or worse in 2012, and nearly a third of all students
scored in the lowest band for the subject.
U.S. lags
The United States ranked 36th, performing below the OECD average in mathematics with 481 points, and a score indistinguishable from the average for reading and science.
The United Kingdom did
slightly better, ranking 26th, equaling the average score for OECD
countries in math and reading. The UK performed above average in science
with a score of 514.
