Schools with varying degrees of funding.

Karkadinn Karkadinn from New Orleans, Louisiana Since: Jul, 2009

Karkadinn

#101: Aug 5th 2011 at 7:28:24 AM

Regarding Breadloaf's chart - The problem with looking at a chart on 'education spending' in general is that it doesn't distinguish between spending that's actually been targeted to make a difference and spending that's being sucked up by management. If the money the government is spending isn't actually making its way to the teachers and the students, then it might as well not be there.

Edit: 2007 isn't exactly current, but it's the most recent I've been able to find so far.

http://aleksandreia.wordpress.com/2011/02/27/international-teacher-pay/

Korea would definitely appear to be the outlier here, although it doesn't exactly make America look good. Especially in light of union attacks, you'd expect teachers to be doing better than 'low-average.'

edited 5th Aug '11 7:34:21 AM by Karkadinn

Furthermore, I think Guantanamo must be destroyed.

Karmakin Moar and Moar and Moar Since: Aug, 2009

Moar and Moar and Moar

#102: Aug 5th 2011 at 8:11:41 AM

Honestly, rising inequality is probably a bigger factor in terms of school performance than anything else.

Democracy is the process in which we determine the government that we deserve

Deboss I see the Awesomeness. from Awesomeville Texas Since: Aug, 2009

I see the Awesomeness.

#103: Aug 5th 2011 at 8:57:40 AM

Might have missed something: I agree that we shouldn't be arbitrarily raising standards, particularly length, without good reason. It seems to be a standardized response: "twenty percent of students are failing X class!" "Require additional class time for all the students!" is a dumb response.

Fight smart, not fair.

Qeise Professional Smartass from sqrt(-inf)/0 Since: Jan, 2011 Relationship Status: Waiting for you *wink*

Professional Smartass

#104: Aug 5th 2011 at 1:10:32 PM

Here is funding statistics: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_spending_on_education_%28%25_of_GDP%29

Is % of GDP the best way of looking at it? If a country is poorer and has more people to educate there will be less money per student than a wealthier country with less people to educate. OTOH prices also vary. Anyway it's not as simple as just looking up the countries positions on that list.

Every now and then in Finland a politican comes up with the notion that primary schoolhours should be extended just because internationally speaking kids spend little time at school (~5 hours a day, give or take depending on the grade). This when most countries have consistenly been less successful.

As if More School = More Learned

Laws are made to be broken. You're next, thermodynamics.

breadloaf Since: Oct, 2010

#105: Aug 5th 2011 at 7:42:31 PM

Well it's difficult to measure exactly how much one spends since dollars in each country don't translate well. But in any case, if you have percent of GDP, you can painstakingly calculate out the numbers yourself.

South Korea is first place, Finland second, Canada third. Roughly (they split it into math/science/reading). UK and Greece rank fairly low, so I'll include those too.

Using 2010 OECD Rankings (of 34 ranks)