The smartest kids in the world summary
Why in this day and age in America, are our most privileged teenagers performing below affluent teenagers in 27 different countries in math? Amanda Ripley examines this question and more in her 2013 New York Times best seller The Smartest Kids in the World – And How They Got That Way.
Ripley engages immediately by introducing three American students as they prepare to embark on a life changing year abroad studying in Finland, Poland, and South Korea – three countries whose young people have recently made huge gains in learning. Weaving educational statistics as the story of these students’ lives unfold, Ripley presents a stark contrast between the educational system in America and these three thriving countries.
As an educator, I create the book fascinating and informative, and several points stood out to me. The first committed Asian vs. American parenting, and why there is such a disparity in their learning/test scores. Ripley found that what parents did at home mattered much more than what parents did at school. American parents tended to be more involved in matters of their children’s school, such as volunteering, PTA, etc. In addition, des
I presented my synopsis of the smartest kids in the world…and how they got that way by Amanda Ripley at yesterday’s Urban Engagement Book Club, sponsored by CitySquare. (Let me first stipulate that I would not hold been one of the smartest kids in the world in my day)…
I was pretty disturbed by reading this book (as I often am by reading the books I read for the Urban Engagment Book Club). Books on poverty, social justice, education, are long on “look at this huge problem,” and sadly, we are so very slow to make progress….
You comprehend the current rankings. The Combined States ranks as middle to lower than middle in international educational outcomes. Even our leading schools do not keep up… From the book:
The typical kid in Beverly Hills performed below average, compared to all kids in Canada (not some other distant land, Canada!).
In case you don’t know about this publication, Amanda Ripley, a journalist, who had resisted writing about learning (“I didn’t say so out loud, but education stories seemed, well, kind of soft”), ended up following three foreign exchange students from the United States to their foreign schools in Finland, Poland, and South Kor
1. Education superpowers prioritize rigor and high expectations for all students
"In the education superpowers, every youth knew the importance of an education."
High standards for all. Countries like Finland, South Korea, and Poland have created education systems where rigorous learning is the norm, not the exception. This applies across socioeconomic levels - even disadvantaged students are expected to master complex material.
Cultural consensus. These nations have reached a shared understanding that education is critical for individual and national success. This drives policies and practices that support high-quality learning.
Results-focused. While approaches differ, top systems share an intense focus on outcomes. They continuously assess what's working and adapt accordingly, rather than getting stuck on ideology or tradition.
2. Teacher quality is crucial: Selective training and upper status drive excellence
"To become a teacher in Finland, Stara had had to first get standard into one of only eight prestigious teacher-training universities."
Selective recruitment. Uppermost systems like Finland's only disclose the best students to educator traini
1. The Treasure Map
- Amanda started with the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) tests, which generates the scores most often used to compare countries and states. She met with Andreas Schleicher, one of the test’s creators who maintains that PISA isn’t perfect, but was none the less the best instrument of its kind. To gain a better understanding of the test, Amanda took one. She found that for the most part, PISA is a test of your ability to do something with facts rather than just memorize facts. It demands fluency in problem solving and communicating. She came away convinced that it did a good job measuring critical thinking. Using the PISA scores as a treasure map, she settled on Finland, South Korea, and Poland as they were developed democracies that had to tolerate the vagaries of politics and the dull plod of compromise.
2. Leaving
- This chapter tells the story of how Kim from a small town in Oklahoma became an exchange student to a small town in Finland. To raise the $10,000 she needed for the program she sold baked goods, did other chores, worked to gain scholarships, and finally relied on money from her grandparents. Oklahoma’s
Cato at LibertyCato at LibertyUpdate: I respond to feedback on this review from readers wondering why I was so harsh on a novel I liked.
In the author’s note to Smartest Kids in the World, Amanda Ripley writes: “I didn’t care deeply about charter schools, vouchers, tenure, or other policy hang-ups…. So, I thought, I’ll just slip out the back door and leave investigate this other mystery for a while.” That other mystery was the apparent ability of some countries to educate their children unusually well.
Ripley’s note captures both the book’s strengths and its weaknesses. She is a talented writer with a sense of adventure, and her prose is a pleasure to read. By setting aside the leading education policy questions of our time, she is able to focus on telling the personal stories of children from very different parts of the world, and there is much to be learned from them.
But there is a cost to ignoring virtually all of the evidence on how education policy affects educational outcomes: you’re much less likely to find the needle in the haystack if you resolve not to look at the hay. When Ripley concludes that the effect of policy is