Achievement gap between the east and the west
...oring nations focus on a few subjects and explore them in depth. U.S. curriculum adopts a shallow approach to teaching. It is “a mile wide and an inch deep.” (Naylor) It covers more topics than all the other participating industrialized nations. Because of dividing attention among topics, U.S. makes little progress between grades. The result of such a small gain is the gradual decline of U.S. ranking (Schmidt). “If you put in place a curriculum, the next question is whether you have the qualified teacher to pull it off?” Fuhrman questioned (qtd. in Hoff). Education Secretary Riley believes that “the teacher is the single most valuable resource in the education equation.” (qtd. in STATS) Sadly, only 45% and 30% of students are taught by a science and math major respectively. The teachers have not mastered the subject they are teaching (STATS). Although the amount of homework that the teachers give everyday is about the same between America and Asia, it is the quality that makes the difference. “It’s not how much we give, it’s what we give. If we give more of the same as what we are doing now, it’s not going to help,” noted by William Schmidt (qtd. in Naylor). When surveyed, 79% of the American students said they are “always” or “often” given time to finish the homework in class (Hoff). In contrast, over 60% of Asian parents buy their children extra workbooks to supplement their regular coursework (Stevenson, 56). What happens to students who are falling behind? When there is a difference in learning ability. American teachers usually introduce tracking and grouping. Students perceived as low achieving are guided into lower-level classes and seldom challenged to take upper-level classes. “In 8th and 9th grade, we start tacking them instead of figuring out what’s making them not understand it,” said Kathleen Husk, a member of the South Redford district’s school board. (qtd. in Naylor) Indeed, what is really happening in the classroom? Led by James Stigler of the UCLA, a videotape study of the classrooms in the U.S., Germany and Japan reveals some differences in teaching methods. German and Japanese teachers virtually never use the overhead projector, while American teachers rely on it for over half of the class period. Also, respectively 80% and 59% of Japanese and German teachers left their chalkboard illustrations for the entire period, compared to only 47% of American teachers. The European and Asian teachers usually adopt the illustration as the center of the class discussion. American teachers, however, are using them to direct their students before moving onto other topics. The tape also revealed that American lessons involve a large amount (24%) of non-subject activities and suffer from interruption during the class. Only 3% and 8% of German and Japanese classes respectively involve non-subject activities. Japanese classrooms are rarely interrupted. In Germany, 13% of class involves outside interruptions, whereas in America, nearly 31% of the class period is disturbed. (Bracey, “Research” 657) In regard to the achievement gap, quantity of instruction time also plays an important role. American kids spend much less time in school. American students usually stay at school for six hours each day. Asian students spend eight hours daily in school, and they return to school for four hours on Saturday. Americans spend half of the year in school while Asian students spend two-thirds. Schooling flows smoothly in Asia because the school is not divided into sharply defined segments, such as semesters and quarters (Stevenson, 52). In addition, the culture differences between the East and the West also contributes to the achievement gap. Students in America and Asian nations believe differently about their academic success. In America, students think that teachers are the key. However, Asian students believe that only individual hard work matters (Sources). “The teacher offers encouragement, help and guidance,” said one American student. While a Japanese student said, “I do not think you can get good grades if you don’t study and have interest....