Excellence in Education

Shanghai's secondary school students were the top performers in the PISA 2009 tests. Chinese society as a whole is committed to excellence in education, and Shanghai's education authorities consistently seek ways to help low-performing schools and students improve their results.

Programme for International Student Assessment (2009)[1] (Top 10; OECD members as of the time of the study in boldface)
Maths	Sciences	Reading
1.  Shanghai, China 600 2.  Singapore 562 3.  Hong Kong, China 555 4.  South Korea 546 5.  Taiwan 543 6.  Finland 541 7.  Liechtenstein 536 8.  Switzerland 534 9.  Japan 529 10.  Canada 527	1.  Shanghai, China 575 2.  Finland 554 3.  Hong Kong, China 549 4.  Singapore 542 5.  Japan 539 6.  South Korea 538 7.  New Zealand 532 8.  Canada 529 9.  Estonia 528 10.  Australia 527	1.  Shanghai, China 556 2.  South Korea 539 3.  Finland 536 4.  Hong Kong, China 533 5.  Singapore 526 6.  Canada 524 7.  New Zealand 521 8.  Japan 520 9.  Australia 515 10.  Netherlands 508

TWO MILLION MINUTES: A GLOBAL EXAMINATION

This groundbreaking, controversial documentary film takes an in-depth look at how students in the United States allocate their high school years (approximately four years or two million minutes) compared with India and China. The film forms a picture of the various levels of global education and addresses the implications of these differences on the 21st century global economy.

Also check out this USA Today article about the film. 


Even though this documentary was filmed back in 2008, do you think the issues are still prevalent here in the USA?