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About 5,100 15-year-olds in Shanghai were chosen as a representative cross-section of students in that city. Who did the "choosing" and what defines "represent

About 5,100 15-year-olds in Shanghai were chosen as a representative cross-section of students in that city. Who did the "choosing" and what defines "representative." We were all impressed with the Chinese Women's Gymnastics Team during the last olympics. Then it turned out many were barely of age to compete. And they were very careful about interacting with the cameras. Were I the U.S. education chief, I'd be talking to the Fins and Hong Kong Chinese instead.

colanderman 16y ago
Indeed, we've recently seen how much Shanghai is not representative of China as a whole: http://blog.sokanu.com/200-countries-200-years-4-minutes http://blog.sokanu.com/200-countries-200-years-4-minutes (skip to near the end of the video if you haven't seen it already) If the US chose only students from say, California and New England, I'm sure we'd be competitive with China as well.
- pashields 16y ago
  I agree about China being representative, but even the best performing state in the US (Massachusetts) still takes a beating from a country like Finland. See the Atlantic's "Your Child Left Behind" - http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2010/11/your-child-left-behind/66069/ http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2010/11/your-chi...
jimboyoungblood 16y ago
Why don't you read the entire article first? The testing in Shanghai was carried out by an international contractor, working with Chinese authorities, and overseen by the Australian Council for Educational Research, a nonprofit testing group, said Andreas Schleicher, who directs the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s international educational testing program. Mark Schneider, a commissioner of the Department of Education’s research arm in the George W. Bush administration, who returned from an educational research visit to China on Friday, said he had been skeptical about some PISA results in the past. But Mr. Schneider said he considered the accuracy of these results to be unassailable. “The technical side of this was well regulated, the sampling was O.K., and there was no evidence of cheating,” he said.
- johnohara 16y ago
  I did. Mr. Schneider, however, noted some factors that may have influenced the outcome. For one thing, Shanghai is a huge migration hub within China. Students are supposed to return to their home provinces to attend high school, but the Shanghai authorities could increase scores by allowing stellar students to stay in the city, he said. And Shanghai students apparently were told the test was important for China’s image and thus were more motivated to do well, he said. Shanghai pop.: 19,000,000+ Finland pop.: 5,500,000+ Hong Kong pop.: 7,000,000+ The population of Shanghai exceeds the total population of NY, LA, CHI, HOU, and PHX combined. Which student sample would you say is more diverse?

colanderman 16y ago

Indeed, we've recently seen how much Shanghai is not representative of China as a whole: http://blog.sokanu.com/200-countries-200-years-4-minutes http://blog.sokanu.com/200-countries-200-years-4-minutes (skip to near the end of the video if you haven't seen it already) If the US chose only students from say, California and New England, I'm sure we'd be competitive with China as well.

pashields 16y ago
I agree about China being representative, but even the best performing state in the US (Massachusetts) still takes a beating from a country like Finland. See the Atlantic's "Your Child Left Behind" - http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2010/11/your-child-left-behind/66069/ http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2010/11/your-chi...

jimboyoungblood 16y ago

Why don't you read the entire article first? The testing in Shanghai was carried out by an international contractor, working with Chinese authorities, and overseen by the Australian Council for Educational Research, a nonprofit testing group, said Andreas Schleicher, who directs the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s international educational testing program. Mark Schneider, a commissioner of the Department of Education’s research arm in the George W. Bush administration, who returned from an educational research visit to China on Friday, said he had been skeptical about some PISA results in the past. But Mr. Schneider said he considered the accuracy of these results to be unassailable. “The technical side of this was well regulated, the sampling was O.K., and there was no evidence of cheating,” he said.

johnohara 16y ago
I did. Mr. Schneider, however, noted some factors that may have influenced the outcome. For one thing, Shanghai is a huge migration hub within China. Students are supposed to return to their home provinces to attend high school, but the Shanghai authorities could increase scores by allowing stellar students to stay in the city, he said. And Shanghai students apparently were told the test was important for China’s image and thus were more motivated to do well, he said. Shanghai pop.: 19,000,000+ Finland pop.: 5,500,000+ Hong Kong pop.: 7,000,000+ The population of Shanghai exceeds the total population of NY, LA, CHI, HOU, and PHX combined. Which student sample would you say is more diverse?