Just saw Race To Nowhere film....

[GoCUBS1]

Originally Posted by Cindy_Jole

I'm guessing these foreign schools did not include any in Asian countries.

Right, I think more of the European and British models.

The principal of our H.S. said our schools are moving toward more of a cross-subject portfolio model. There will be less emphasis on standardized test scores and the H.S. no longer publishes class rank.

Unfortunately, our H.S. has experienced a high number of teen suicides in the last several years along with increased teen depression, drugs, cutting, eating disorders, etc. Because of this, I believe there is movement toward an environment that focuses less on peer competition and more on individualized portfolio work.

[nana053]

Originally Posted by Cindy_Jole

I'm guessing these foreign schools did not include any in Asian countries.

Schools turn down the heat on homework

Some surveys have shown the amount of homework assigned often doesn't correspond to academic achievement. The 2003 Third International Study of Mathematics and Sciences, by Dr. David P. Baker and Dr. Gerald K. LeTendre at Penn State University, which collected a large amount of data from schools in 41 nations, shows that many countries with the highest scoring students, such as Japan, the Czech Republic and Denmark, have teachers who give little homework. Countries with very low average scores, like Thailand, Greece and Iran, have teachers who assign a great deal of homework.

Archived: To Sum It Up: Chapter 4, The Place of School in Adolescents' Lives (Part 1 of 2)

Japan. The close equivalence between doing "homework" and "studying" that exists in the United States is not shared by countries such as Japan. In Japanese, homework (shukudai) refers only to the time spent completing the assignments made by the teacher rather than the amount of time spent studying (benkyo). In addition, students may consider the time spent in preparing for lessons and reviewing class material (yoshu), or in answering practice questions (renshu mondai).

While the amount of time spent doing "homework" may be very modest, the time spent studying is not. Teachers informed us that by the time students enter junior high school they are expected to study every evening, whether or not they have been assigned homework. After completing their homework assignment, if there is any, it is expected that they will review the current day’s lesson and study for the next day’s lesson in anticipation of what will be presented in class.