News

The Games in Review

Thursday, August 28, 2008

This year’s Education Olympics have come to an end, but for the United States the bitter taste of near-total defeat lingers.

Though the Americans topped the world rankings on the CivEd civic skills exam, thus winning their only gold medal of the competition, our final report shows that they have a lot of work to do in every other area of international academic competition.

Covering the the PISA, PIRLS, TIMSS, and CivEd exams, this volume of results, rankings, and analysis provides a ready resource of all the recent international comparative data in one spot—and 47 pages of motivation for a stronger American showing when the Education Olympians reconvene in London in 2012.

Download it for free here.

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We got one!

Friday, August 22, 2008

August 22, 2008--The United States will now be slightly less humiliated on the world stage, as the Americans won a gold medal today in the CivEd Civic Skills event, which measures the abilities of a country’s students to distinguish fact from opinion, interpret political cartoons, and comprehend political messages. Team USA also had a relatively strong showing in the overall civic knowledge competition, finishing fifth. Why the sudden leap in the international standings? Eric McLuhan, son of the late media theorist Marshall McLuhan, hypothesized that the disparity between the Americans’ performance in civics and core subjects like reading, math, and science could be attributed to the popularity in the United States of 24-hour cable news channels, whose content predominately concerns American politics. He also pointed out that these channels are on television, while exercises in reading, math, and science typically take place between the covers of a book.

Interestingly, Poland also took home its first medals of the 2008 games in the civics events, as did Cyprus and Greece. Turkey may want to watch out.

Finally, it came down to the wire, but Finland was ultimately able to edge out Hong Kong for the top overall medal count, putting up 35 to Hong Kong’s 33. Singapore finished a distant third with 16 medals; South Korea and Japan both finished with 15. 

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Blowing bubbles

Thursday, August 21, 2008

August 21, 2008--“Oh, sir, you have not seen nothing yet,” Singaporean eighth-grade mathematics captain Win Doew told a reporter after his fourth-grade compatriots dominated the TIMSS math competitions on Tuesday. With a little help from his teammates, Win backed up his boast today, as Singapore took six golds and a silver in eight TIMSS events. After their victory, the Singaporean team could be seen celebrating raucously in Ed Olympics Village, stuffing their faces with chewing gum.

Surprising no one, the United States registered another goose egg today, though they did look quite sharp in the the CivEd preliminaries. Tomorrow they will compete in the medal rounds in that event—their last chance to bring home some jewelry.

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Light is the head that wears no crown

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

August 20, 2008--Day 9 of the 2008 Education Olympics is over, and the Americans are no richer in gold, silver, or bronze. Another giant on the world stage did finally hit a wellspring, however. Just weeks after the death of one if its leading literary lights, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Russia took two golds and a silver in three PIRLS reading events.

Russia’s wins slowed the momentum of the East Asian powers, who dominated yesterday’s TIMSS mathematics exams, although Hong Kong did manage to steal a gold, a silver, and a bronze. The tiny island territory has narrowed the gap with Finland in the overall medal count and hopes to give the Finns a run for their money in the eight math and three civics events that remain in this year’s games.

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Introducing the Vodkaphone

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

August 19, 2008--If the Finns were the Michael Phelpses of the PISA science events, it looks like the Singaporeans may play that role in the TIMSS mathematics competition. The Finnish contingent was called back home by president Tarja Halonen to rescue a merger between the Finlandia Vodka Company and Nokia Corporation, and the East Asian nations, led by Singapore, stepped in to fill the void. Singapore took gold in six of today’s eight championship events; Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, Japan, and South Korea shared the rest of the medals.

The United States had some of its best finishes yet, placing 7th on the TIMSS 4th-grade “data” content area test and 8th on both the male and female comprehensive exams. Ed Olympic gold still eludes the Americans, however—as does Ed Olympic silver and Ed Olympic bronze. Will they break through in the three days of competition that remain? Stay tuned to find out.

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U.S. has a case of the Mondays

Monday, August 18, 2008

August 18, 2008--It’s official: American students are science illiterate. The PISA events wrapped up today with four science literacy exams, none of which the Americans proved capable of mastering. As a result, the young Yankees ended up watching the indomitable Finns take their 22nd, 23rd, and 24th gold medals of this year’s games.

Several experts--the Flypaper bloggers most notable among them--are predicting, however, that the Finns will see much tougher competition as we enter the medal rounds of the TIMSS math events, typically a stronghold of East Asian nations like Japan and Singapore. Will the United States have a new master to bow to, or will Finland continue its domination? Stick around to find out!

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