There was an advanced level included in the PISA testing in which six percent of American students passed, while thirty other countries' students performed better.
Many countries are improving their educational standards at a faster pace than America. Leading professionals are concerned that economic growth in America could be threatened by its' students low performance in math and by its slower progress as a whole academically ("Best Education 2). The future will require workers who have innovative, creative ideas and strong analytical reasoning skills in order to be competitive in areas such as advanced computers and robotics.
The National Center on Education and the Economy (NCEE), recently released a report in Washington, D.C. in which they urged the Secretary of Education, politicians, and school leaders to follow the example of how other countries educate. To quote Marc Tucker, NCEE's CEO, "The most effective way to greatly improve student performance in the United States is to figure out how the countries with top student performance are doing it, build on their achievements and then, by building on our unique strengths, figure out how to do it even better" (Koebler 1). This is why and how we should reform the U.S. school system; we should emulate some of the approaches taken in the best educating countries of the world in order to achieve the success which they have.
Keeping that in mind, I researched the top ranked educational countries in the world in order to see how they do it. Finland and South Korea are ranked the best countries at educating in the world (Lau 1). Each country achieves this goal in two very different ways, although they have one in common: the respect for and training of teachers. South Koreans use rote learning, long hours of study, intense family and social pressure, and sometimes severe punishment to achieve their educational success. South Korea holds teachers in very high regard and teachers are one of the top paid professions in South Korea.
