Are Singaporean students all wunderkinder compared to their lazy, stupid American counterparts? This article in the Washington Post appears to beg to differ:

If Singaporean eighth-graders sat for our [National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP] science test, what proportion would be labeled “proficient or better”?

[... Answer:] Fifty-one percent.

The article really is an indictment of the NAEP test rather than claiming that American kids somehow trump Singaporean ones. However, it might be useful to someone trying to pull a fast one by showing this as an example of how even exam-smart Singaporean students can be shown to perform poorly when you use the wrong metrics and a poorly worded test.

Reference

  1. Gerald W. Bracey, Washington Post, “A Test Everyone Will Fail“, May 8 2007.