ANNOTATED+BIBLIOGRAPHY+Simin_Fang

1) PISA, O. (2012). PISA Results 2012: United States. (n.d.). Retrieved December 7, 2015, from []
==== This document is a report focusing on US student global ranking. According to PISA Results 2012, the U.S. ranked 27th in mathematics among 34 OECD countries, 20th in science and 17th in reading. China-Shanghai scores for the first place in mathematic performance. While the U.S. spends more money on education, it doesn’t translate to better performance. The U.S. spends on per student almost twice as much as the Slovak Republic does, but it ranked the same as the Slovak. Socia-economic background has a significant impact on student performance in the United States. Moreover, students in the U.S. are largely satisfied with their school and view teacher-student relationship positively. The U.S. has the advantage of education funding and better parents’ education comparing with other OECD countries. ==== ==== If we just interpret the results from the dead data, it can be stunning that U.S. is so far behind many other countries that are less developed than they are. There are some problems in American education, but not as serious as it looks to be. Every country has its own condition. It's really hard to evaluate the student ability simply through a series of tests. Many Asia countries rank good in PISA’s result is because high school students study harder than western students. They are trained to get good scores in exams, but they may not be able to deal with the real world well. However, at present, due to China’s large population and economic development, it’s unrealistic to change the whole testing and education system into another way. There is a reason for China to keep the standard test for each student. For the United States, the government should take their own realistic concerns into consideration more instead of making policies simply because of those data. ====

2) Riddle, M. (2014, February 12). PISA: It’s Still ‘Poverty Not Stupid’. Retrieved December 7, 2015, from []
==== In this article, Riddle points out that most public school bashers and doomsayers try to use the PISA results to further their philosophy or agenda on public school failing. However, if being more carefully analyzed, it can be found poverty is the main reason for American student low performance in PISA. Schools in the United States with less than a 10% poverty rate had a PISA score of 551. When compared to the ten countries with similar poverty numbers, that score ranked first. However, schools in the United States with more than a 75% poverty rate had a PISA score of 446, which ranks almost the bottom. The problem is not as much with our educational system as it is with our high poverty rates. Instead of labeling all schools as failing, we must find a way to raise the performance of our students in under-resourced schools. School improvement is not an event. It is an ongoing process that has no end. ==== ==== Riddle provides with a sharp and accurate interpretation for the United States student performance in PISA 2012. The results should be looked in a more detailed way than simply overall saying all American public schools are failing. Different schools have different situations. We can’t use the same policies on schools in different conditions. To improve the overall performance in PISA, the United States should narrow down the gap between the rich and the poor first. Poverty is the main reason for its low performance. Moreover, the No-Child-Left-Behind policy should be a policy that provides every kid with the best education instead of forcing every kid to take education. ====

====3) PISA 2012 Results in Focus What 15-year-olds know and what they can do with what they know. (n.d.). Retrieved December 7, 2015, from [] ====

==== This document is the report about PISA results on all participating countries in 2012. The biggest finding in this report is that China-Shanghai is the top-performer at every subject. The report says “proficiency in mathematics is a strong predictor of positive outcomes for young adults, influencing their ability to participate in post-secondary education and their expected future earnings.” One graph also shows that among the developed countries, the more salary the teacher has, the better performance the students have in the PISA. ==== ==== When PISA viewing excellent performance at math as a strong predictor of positive outcomes for young adults, I think tests for student at 15-year-old is kind of early to draw the future conclusion. The fact is in order to have good performance at a young age, students need to start learning early and facing much pressure early. This will hinder them from thinking creatively. The results should be interpreted together with students’ psychological conditions. However, the teacher’s salary and student math performance can give policy makers some ideas about encouraging teachers’ passion for teaching. Instead of putting much money to test and evaluate teachers and students, maybe improving their living qualities can work better. ====

==== This long report explores a lot about school reform. There are three main issues: are the public schools failing? Are teachers’ unions a major barrier to improving schools? Is business-style competition a good model for improving schools? The research also shows that the United States is behind most countries at mathematics and the lower scores is tied to poverty. Teachers’ unions aren’t a major barrier to improving schools. Teachers in some other countries have higher salary and prestige than American teachers. Policy makers should just use data-based and market-driven ways to fire teachers or evaluate teachers to make improvement. Evaluation is much more complicated than it seems to be. ==== ==== A good teacher can't be evaluated just through a bunch of tests. There are many teachers who are not good at taking tests but phenomenal in teaching students. If government put too much stress on teachers in taking tests, they will have much less time in teaching students. They will be busy and anxious in handling those evaluation procedures instead of expressing their own passion for teaching. Evaluation is really complicated. It needs the combination of many aspects. ====

5) Pellissier, H. (n.d.). The Finnish miracle | GreatKids. Retrieved December 7, 2015, from []
==== In this article, Pellissier highly praised the education environment in Finland. First, Finland has always been doing well in PISA. Second, teaching is the profession has the most respect in Finland. While in the United States, teaching is sometimes the “fallback” for college students. Third, Finish teachers’ salary is much higher than American teacher. Forth, Finish teachers have more freedom in designing their own courses. Fifth, Finland has free pre-school and pre-college which is quite helpful for Finish students. Sixth, in Finish education culture, they kicked out the “dog-eat-dog” competition. Everyone studies in a happy way. ==== ==== There are many education style worth-learning in this passage, such as show more respect for teachers and help students learn in a more relaxing way. This can’t be applied to China because China has a too large population. However, since the United States has substantial funding for education, they can improve towards that way. After all, the goal of education is to help students be who they want to be. But in Race To The Top policy, American education reform is full of competition. This pushes everyone into heavy pressure. The increasing on tests just make both teachers and students tired. They should focus more on how to really improve the student education life. ==== ==== 6) Zhao, Y. (n.d.). A True Wake-up Call for Arne Duncan: The Real Reason Behind Chinese Students Top PISA Performance. Retrieved December 7, 2015, from [] ==== ==== In this article, the Chinese scholar Zhao thinks it’s unreasonable to put China to the best-education place just because China-Shanghai ranked the top in PISA 2012. Zhao points out that this result can’t really prove China is better education because the sample they chose is small and it's in the richest area in China. Moreover, China has the reputation for producing outstanding test-takers, so it’s not a big news for Chinese media that Shanghai ranked to the top in PISA and Chinese people are not proud by this result, either. Because instead of being happy for the excellent result at 15-year-ole result, most Chinese people worry about the children’s future more. More and more news is saying Chinese high school students are under too much pressure. This is killing their passion for further learning in future. ==== ==== It’s very true for China’s present situation. For many Asia countries, they have too many rules for students to follow and they practice too much on the same task again and again. This does help them to get familiar with what they are learning, but devoting all the time into exams and math problems takes away many children’s school life which should have been more colorful. However, under the pressure of national standard exams, students don’t have another choice. Maybe it's a way to train their ability to handle the pressure, but still, many students are getting dumber and dumber because of this kind of education system. ====