Maths Tutoring Adds Up For Students: OECD Study
Dear NYC Families,
I just found this really awesome article complete with and interactive graph that you have to check out. It discusses the percentage of children that take after-school classes/tutoring in the areas of math, Reading, and Science, and then shows you what percent they ranked on the international PISA test scores.
In the US, 30% of children participate in after-school math classes/tutoring and they rank very low. In China, 70% of students attend after-school math classes and they rank at the top.
Make your own conclusions, however, it seems to me that the US is greatly slacking in this department. More focus needs to be asserted on Math instruction outside of school if our children are to succeed.
Especially because all of the future high paying jobs in STEM highly rely on math.
Please check out this very cool interactive graph for yourself!
Sincerely,
Franco Verdino
FasTracKids Regional Director
P.S.
Eye-Level is South Korea's #1 Supplemental Math Program and education company with over 2.5 Million students enrolled worldwide.
"If you can't beat em, join em!"
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Math tutoring adds up for students: OECD study
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Many of the world's most mathematically gifted teenagers come from countries with the most lucrative tutoring industries.
Figures released this week show tutoring in Asia's powerhouses is widespread, with participation rates more than double those in Australia, though the extent to which their success is a result of a punishing study schedule is unclear.
In test results released by the OECD, 15-year-olds from Shanghai topped the mathematics rankings, performing at a level equivalent to three years ahead of students in Australia.
Pressure: Neutral Bay Kumon instructor Chai Khin Soon, who has been a tutor for 16 years, say she is tutoring preschoolers as young as two and a half. Photo: Jacky Ghossein
About 71% of the city's students reported attending out-of-school lessons for math, with 16% attending more than four hours each week. In Singapore, the second-ranked system, 68% attended the lessons. In comparison, just 27% of students in Australia receive math tuition outside of school, which is below the OECD average of 38%.
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Few argue we should model ourselves on Korea's notorious ''cram schools.'' So intense is the pressure that authorities have imposed a 10 p.m. curfew on schools there. South Korean students are the least happy at school and the country's suicide rates are the highest in the developed world.
Richard Walker, an associate professor in the faculty of education at the University of Sydney, says excessive study is bad for anyone, ''let alone a 12- or 13-year-old kid when they should be out having a broader experience of life."
''You don't want to overburden kids,'' Dr. Walker said. ''They need to have bright inquiring minds, otherwise they just become stale.''
But despite the problems associated with excessive tutoring, the school education program director at the Grattan Institute, Ben Jensen, said there was still a lot to be learned from these countries and their focus on quality teaching.
''I see a lot of people write off international comparisons because they think we don't want to be like Asia and that's really just avoiding the issue,'' he said. ''Yes they're different, yes there are things we don't want, but they will have things we can learn from.''
Tutoring company Kumon Australia, which has more than 20,000 students, says its maths enrolments in NSW and the ACT have increased 6 per cent over the past three years and the average student age is becoming markedly younger.
Neutral Bay instructor Chai Khin Soon says she didn't teach preschoolers when she started tutoring 16 years ago. ''Now I have a lot of preschoolers … from 2½ years old,'' she said.
Mosman High School student Lauren Elmes attends tutoring at the Kumon Centre in Neutral Bay but says she does not enjoy it. ''[Mum] says it's good for the future and stuff and that I should just keep going,'' the 13 year old said. ''I just don't really like it.''
Mr Jensen said it would be drawing a long bow to suggest tutoring was the answer to raising standards in schools.
''Often it's easier to look at outside factors to look for a magic bullet that will provide a wonderful lift,'' he said. ''But when it gets down to the nuts and bolts everyone knows it's the leadership within the school and the quality of teaching in the classroom that makes all the difference.''
Education Minister Christopher Pyne said parents were free to engage the services of tutors but the government was focused on lifting student outcomes in the classroom.
''This is why we are forming a Ministerial Advisory Group to assess what ways teacher quality can be boosted across the country,'' he said. ''Combined with our other measures to ensure we have a robust curriculum while increasing school autonomy and parental engagement, the Coalition's policies will be tackling the decline in student outcomes head on.''
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