So Rose, what percentage of high school dropuouts would you say dropped out for legitimate reasons?

Hi Rose. I equate a GED with a HS diploma. Just got it a little later. For 99% of high school students, there is no excuse for not graduating. Notice I did not say 100%.

The test results (an avg) in the US are affected by many variables.
Different state laws and different demographics just to name a few.

Did you know that among children of illegal immigrants the dropout rate is greater than 70 percent!

I was making a chart one day and if you divide the US test results up by state, the US would have approx 7 of the top ten highest scores in the world!

Makes since when you consider the European Union countries are only as big as 1 US state without 25% of the diversity.

It would be a better comparison to avg the scores of all the EU countries as one.
I still dont think the diversity would be as high but the scores would present a more accurate comparison!

WASHINGTON, Nov. 19 (UPI) -- The United States is no longer the world leader in secondary education, according to the rankings of an international organization.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development places the United States 18th among the 36 nations examined, USA Today reported Wednesday.

Headed to the top of the heap is South Korea where 93 percent of high school students graduate on time compared with the United States where 75 percent receive their diplomas.

The seemingly downward trend of U.S. education worries economists.

"The United States has rested on its laurels way too long," Jacob Funk Kirkegaard of the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, told USA Today. "Other countries have increasingly caught up and surpassed the United States."

"We've been asleep for a good number of years as a country," says Richard Freeman, an economics professor at Harvard. "It's not that we're doing horrible. But the other guys are moving faster."

Now compare those scores to our top 5 States individually.

You could take every country in Europe and they would still not equal the US in size or demographics!

If you take the scores from just Minn, Mass, Conn, they would all rank in the top 5 or close on that list.

Finnland 2nd in reading and math and 1st in Science. Impressive.

Gives me something to research on. Thanks for the information Atlantis.

t the heart of Finland's stellar reputation is a philosophy completely alien to America. The country of 5.3 million in an area twice the size of Missouri considers education an end in itself - not a means to an end. It's a deeply rooted value that is reflected in the Ministry of Education and in all 432 municipalities. In sharp contrast, Americans view education as a stepping stone to better-paying jobs or to impress others. The distinction explains why we are obsessed with marquee names, and how we structure, operate and fund schools.

The headlines notwithstanding, misconceptions about Finland's renown as an educational icon abound. The Finns spend a meager (compared to the U.S.) $5,000 a year per student, operate no gifted programs, have average class sizes close to 30, and don't begin schooling children until they are 7. Moreover, Finland is not the homogeneous nation of lore. While still not as diverse as the U.S., the number of immigrant students in Helsinki's comprehensive schools is exploding, with their numbers expected to constitute 23.3 percent of the city's schools by 2025. At present, about 11 percent are immigrants, compared with just 6 percent in 2002. According to the City of Helsinki Urban Facts, by 2015 there will be schools with more than half of the student body from abroad.

Not surprisingly, in a land where literacy and numeracy are considered virtues, teachers are revered. Teenagers ranked teaching at the top of their list of favorite professions in a recent survey. Far more graduates of upper schools in Finland apply for admission to teacher-training institutes than are accepted. The overwhelming majority of those who eventually enter the classroom as a teacher make it a lifelong career, even though they are paid no more than their counterparts in other European countries.

One of the major reasons for the job satisfaction that Finnish teachers report is the great freedom they enjoy in their instructional practices. As long as they adhere to the core national curriculum, teachers are granted latitude unheard of in the U.S. The scripted lesson plans that teachers here are increasingly being expected to follow would be rejected out of hand as an insult by teachers in Finland and by their powerful union, which has a growing membership of some 117,500 members.

If none of these facts are enough to raise doubts about the policies the U.S. has in place or on the drawing board, Finland's testing practices should raise a final red flag. The Finns do not administer national standardized tests during the nine years of basic education. Instead, the National Board of Education assesses learning on the basis of a sample representing about 10 percent of a stipulated age group. Individual school results are strictly confidential, and schools are neither ranked nor compared. The data collected are available only to the schools in question and to the National Board of Education, which use them to help improve instruction. The naming and shaming that No Child Left Behind relies on in its obsession with quantification would be unthinkable.

Finland has been setting the standards in education for a couple of years now.

here, read this:


http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/02/27/7330

So tell me, how many states (out of 50) are able to compete with the rest of the world to be in the top 10-20 spots and should we be going by states? What's gonna happen with the rest and which states have the worst scores?

Finland has been setting the standards in education for a couple of years now.

here, read this:


http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/02/27/7330