Well, I wonder if this blog title posting got your attention 
. In The New York Times’ article “Study Compares States’ Math and Science Scores With Other Countries’ “:
“American students even in low-performing states like Alabama do better on math and science tests than students in most foreign countries, including Italy and Norway, according to a new study released yesterday. That’s the good news. The bad news is that students in Singapore and several other Asian countries significantly outperform American students, even those in high-achieving states like Massachusetts, the study found. “In this case, the bad news trumps the good because our Asian economic competitors are winning the race to prepare students in math and science,” said the study’s author, Gary W. Phillips, chief scientist at the American Institutes of Research, a nonprofit independent scientific research firm.”
If you take a look at the full report: “Chance Favors the Prepared Mind: Mathematics and Science Indicators for Comparing States and Nations (.pdf)”, the report ranks (in order) these countries ahead of the United States in mathematics:
Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan , Japan and Belgium
and in science:
Singapore, Taiwan, Korea, Hong Kong, Japan, Estonia, England, and Hungary.
So it looks like Asian countries in general have done a better job of educating their students in math and science. (BTW – I wonder why China wasn’t included in the study – maybe there aren’t any “national” standards to compare against?) But something tells me that this isn’t necessarily the sole reason why Asian-Americans have been stereotyped of being good in math and science.
(Photo credit: Silenceofnight)
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8 Comments to “Asians *ARE* good at math and science”
Michael wrote:
LOL. The real reason they do so well is that the bottom of the pool is eliminated. Here in Taiwan, until very recently, the bottom scorers weren’t permitted to advance out of 8th grade. So this inflated scores. I also doubt that the people doing this study took the time to get a substantial cross section of the HS age kids — rather, they got kids from the high schools, without bothering to note that only the top 20% of kids go to high cshool, the rest being shunted into vocational systems. Finally, long experience here has convinced me that any numbers generated here should be taken with a very large grain of NaCl.
Michael
Posted on 16-Nov-07 at 7:16 am | Permalink
akrypti wrote:
Ok this is very random, but I’m working on a book of short stories and as I write, I always run a Google search of the names I make up for my fictional characters, just to kind of get a feel of who else out there in the world have that name and what they’re like. These names all happen to be Asian. And for about 80% of the fictional names I’ve Googled, there is an engineer or science professor or math professor or techie with that Asian name.
Just saying.
Posted on 16-Nov-07 at 10:56 am | Permalink
KJY wrote:
It’s race, not place. That’s why Asians have high achievement wherever they go. And it’s race, not culture, which is why adopted Asians have IQs higher than the white mean.
Posted on 18-Nov-07 at 9:49 pm | Permalink
John wrote:
Oh please. The genetic differences between the races are so small that I doubt it is race. It is educational institutions, funding priorities, culture etc…. Nutrition alone I am sure could explain a lot of differences between North Koreans and South Koreans.
Posted on 19-Nov-07 at 12:47 am | Permalink
Bertie wrote:
Here’s an article I came across today on race and IQ. It might be an interesting topic to write about on 8Asians. Granted, discussing race and its correlation to IQ on the internet often turns into the online equivalent of napalm, but ignoring or pooh-poohing the topic is disingenuous.
(For the record, I think the discrepancy results from culture and the level of access to education.)
Posted on 19-Nov-07 at 12:43 pm | Permalink
Evan wrote:
I’m now a U.S. High school student, coming from China last year.
yep. China is not included in the list because there are not a lot chinese mainland students who taking the tests that were designed for English countries(like SAT,AP in U.S, A-level in the Commonwealth). so no statistic data available to compare chinese mainland students with other countries’. But I can definitely tell you that you math and science in mailand china will only be better than Hong Kong’s and Taiwan’s, not worse than them. I’m not sure about Korean, Japan, Vietnam, etc, Cuz there are not part of China(no matter PRC or “ROC”)
Posted on 11-Mar-08 at 8:02 pm | Permalink
kira wrote:
my teacher said that Asians parent are strict because they care about their childs education!!!
Posted on 07-Oct-08 at 12:20 pm | Permalink
Bruised Lee wrote:
I am from Singapaore. Generally, Chinese are good in Maths as shown
by the TIMS RESULTS in 1999,2003,& 2007. on S’pore,Hongkong & Taiwan.
Although China was not included in the TIMS, we have many new Chinese immigrant from Mainland and most of their children performed very well in Maths and Science after they had immersed 2 to 3 years into our English School. In the International Maths & Science Olympia, for the last 10 yrs. China had dominated in Maths,Physics,Chemistry & Biology.
Even participants from USA,Britain,Canada & Australia had many of Chinese descend; just like table-tennis in the Olympic Game.
This has something to do with the Chinese/Confucious culture. We placed great emphasis & importance in Education. Korea, Japan & Vietnam shared similar culture. That’s why their students were among the top 5. When I was six, my father made me memorise the Times Table. Adding and subtraction were part of the routine excercise. Most Chinese like to gamble and sometime they started from very young.
Most gambling games involved in numbers and simple maths. By the time I was 12 yrs. old, I knew most of the card games & played “Mahjong” too.
I realised it had help my mental calculation tremendously. I have adopeted my father’s teaching on maths to my daughter and she got A’s in her GCE “O” & “A” levels. However, I have discouraged her to gamble.
Posted on 21-Mar-09 at 2:11 am | Permalink
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