The bad news is they are not from the U.S. Amanda Ripley recently published a book by that name, looking at Finland, South Korea, and Poland, all of which score far higher on tests than American students.
She followed three American high school students in schools in each of those countries to see if she could discover the reasons American students were falling behind. One major reason may be the emphasis on high school sports in America.
For example, the Pennsylvania student who was studying in Poland came from a school in which sports were “the core culture.” Four local reporters showed up to each football game. In Poland, “sports simply did not figure into the school day; why would they? Plenty of kids played pickup soccer or basketball games on their own after school, but there was no confusion about what school was for--or what mattered to kids’ life chances.”
Now I’m feeling guilty. In the window of the Democratic Information Center in Lehighton we are exhibiting large posters of County football team schedules. We aren’t showing academic performance or highlighting test scores. I think we may be part of the problem.
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