Notes: Smartest Kids in the World

by Amanda Ripley.

By "smart", those who scored highest on the PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment). It tests 15-year-olds on critical thinking.

South Korean and Finnish kids scored the highest. Poland was most improved. Korean kids study alot and get tutored alot and are masochistic about studying. Pressure, pressure, especially from the parents. Finland not so much. A bit happier there.

• "My Finnish school fostered a great deal of respect for the institution and faculty in the students. This can be partly explained by the academic rigors that teachers had to endure in their journeys to becoming educators."
• Need the elite as teachers. Highly educated and well trained teachers and principals. That's the lesson from Finland.
• Also, kids have freedom. Parents trust their kids more. Teenagers are treated more like adults. 
• Expectations were lower in America. Consequences were, too. 
• Most Korean parents saw themselves as coaches, while American parents tended to act more like cheerleaders. 
• Coach parents saw education as one of their jobs. This kind of parenting was typical in much of Asia -- and among Asian immigrant parents living in the U.S. 
• To work, praise had to be specific, authentic and rare. 
• Four kinds of parenting: 1. Authoritarian; 2. Permissive; 3. Neglectful; 4. Authoritative. 
• Teach Like a Champion, by D. Lemov -- need to be both warm and strict. 
• Asian-American parenting style may be the most consistently authoritative. 
• Want our children to grow up thoughtful, curious, and smart. 
• One fundamental theme: in Korea and Finland, everyone saw getting an education as a serious quest, more important than sports or self-esteem. Importance of rigorous education led to natural consequences -- more serious teacher training colleges ... learning so important only the most-educated, high-achieving citizens could be allowed to do the teaching. Public respect for learning led to great teaching. 
• Teachers and principals had enough leeway to do their jobs like true professionals. They were accountable for results, but autonomous in their methods. Kids had more freedom, too. 
• Agreed on the purpose of school: Schools existed to help students master complex academic material. 
• In those countries -- the drive of the students and families. It was viral. Kids feed off each other. U.S. kids placed higher priority on sports. Sports had nothing to do with education. 
• Value of diligence. More important to find kids who got the job done, whatever the job. Culture that cultivated conscientiousness? Poland. 
• Poland's road back -- new program would lay out fundamental goals, but leave details to the schools. 
• They delayed tracking. Once kids were labeled and segregated into the lower track, their learning slowed down. Tracking at 16 years old. 
• Equity -- core value of fairness, backed up by money and institutionalized by delayed tracking -- wa a telltale sign of rigor. 
• At the particular high school in Poland that Tom foreign exchanged at ... no sports. No confusion about what school was for. 
• Rigor couldn't exist without equity. Equity was not just a matter of tracking and budgets; it was a mindset. 
• "For physical things, the standards are higher here (U.S.). For studying, the standards are higher in Korea. 
• Consensus that children had to learn higher-order thinking. First, agree that rigor mattered most of all; that schools existed to help kids learn to think, to work hard, and to fail. 
• In the U.S., no consensus around rigor. But a culture plagued by distractions, from digital white boards to self-esteem building to high school football. 
• Rigorous learning and telling the children the truth. 

How to Spot World-Class education.

• Watch the students. Are all the kids paying attention, interested in what they are doing, and working hard? Rigorous learning actually looks rigorous. There should be a sense of urgency that you can feel. Resist the urge to focus on the teacher. 
• In the best schools, boredom was the exception rather than the norm. 
• Ask students for their insight. What are you doing right now? Why? 
• In this class, do you learn a lot every day? Do students in this class usually behave the way your teacher wants them to? Does this class stay busy and not waste time? If you don't understand something, what do you do? 
• Listen to the parents. Ask parents to talk about the school's weaknesses. If they say they are very involved in the school, ask them how.
• Ignore shiny objects. Old-school can be a good school. In most of the highest-performing systems, technology is remarkably absent from classrooms. Systems place their efforts primarily on pedagogical practice rather than digital gadgets. When looking for a world-class education, people always matter more than props. 
• Ask principal the hard questions: How do you choose your teachers? How do you make your teachers better? How do you measure your success? How do you make sure the work is rigorous enough? How do you keep raising the bar to find out what kids can do? 
• At Success Academies, kindergarten teachers are forbidden from speaking to children in a singsong voice. It's hard to respect children when you are talking down to them. 
• Mission Possible, by Eva Moskowitz. At Success Academy, parents are not asked to bake cookies or sell gift wrap. Instead they are asked to read to their kids six nights a week. Parents have the cell phone numbers of their kids' teachers and principal.