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為什么國際教育領域排名存在瑕疵
International benchmarking is difficult, but perhaps one of the areas where this is most complicated is education. As a widely recognized economic driver and catalyst for national progress, it is intimately tied with economic and social policy - both of which vary widely by country. What matters in education differs depending on a country’s culture, values,and current circumstances. And a country’s curriculum is likely to reflect these, which is why international education comparisons often fail to accurately reflect knowledge and learning. In the United States, for example,one of the reasons we see such a strong push for STEM is because of its importance in fueling the US economy. US top industries include aerospace, telecommunications, and automobiles, so the country needs highly educated and innovative workers in these areas like aerospace engineers to move these forward. A country like China,on the other hand, might be more focused on technical and vocational training to support its prominent large-scale goods manufacturing.
國際社會標桿管理非常困難，但是其中最復雜的應該就是教育領域。作為公認的經濟驅動者和國家進步的催化劑，教育與經濟和社會政策之間有著密切的關系——各國的政策各有不同。根據每個國家的文化，價值觀和當前形勢，各國的教育重心也有所不同。一個國家的課程安排或許可以反映這些，所以國際教育對比通常不能精確地反映知識和學習情況。例如，在美國，我們看到STEM（科學、技術、工程和數學）專業如此受到推崇是因為這些專業在推動美國經濟發展方面的重要性。美國的高端行業包括航空航天，電訊和汽車，所以國家需要受到高等教育的創新人才加入航空航天工程等行業，促進行業發展。另一方面，比如中國，或許更側重技術和職業訓練，支持其大規模的卓越的制造業。
Our education priorities change over time to meet new needs as well. If you watched the movie Interstellar, the point is clear - when food scarcity hit, the entire school curriculum changed to focus on farming and agriculture instead of say, art and architecture. Though that was just a movie, the same concept applies today. Context matters. And tests cannot account for this varying contexts across countries.
我們的教育重心也會隨著時間的推移而做出改變，以滿足時代需求。如果你看過電影《星際穿越》，你就會非常明白——當食物稀缺出現的時候，整個學校課程都會發生變化，側重于耕作和農業，而不是藝術和建筑。盡管這只是電影，然而這個觀念同樣適用于現在。時代背景非常重要。所以，對于教育來說，沒有適合所有國家不同背景的考核標準。
It’s impossible. In fact, the preeminent PISA test used to make international education comparisons only tests math,reading and science,neglecting other areas like social sciences,or music. And PISA states very clearly that it “does not test how well a student has mastered a school’s specific curriculum.”
這是不可能的。實際上，用于評估國際教育情況的有名的PISA（Program for International Student Assessment）(國際學生評估項目的縮寫）只考察數學，閱讀和科學，而忽視了其他領域，比如社會科學或音樂等等。PISA非常明確地表示，它“并不考察學生在學校特定課程的情況”。
But to further complicate international comparisons,there’s the issue of the tests being flawed themselves within the areas they are trying to measure. Exams are incredibly difficult to make because they are meant to be a representation- or a slice of your knowledge that represents the whole. But you always run the risk of taking the wrong slice, especially on an international scale where there are no clear universal standards.
但是讓國際教育程度考察更加復雜的是，他們試圖考察的領域也存在著弊端。考試非常難以進行，因為考試只是少量的代表——代表你所有知識的少量知識。但是你可能沒有掌握要考的內容，尤其是在沒有明確的統一標準的國際范圍內。
But even if there were, the tests still run the risk of being flawed - often in ways that unfairly favor certain populations over others.Despite this, standardized testing has become much more prevalent and widely influential.
但是，即使有著統一標準，考試仍然存在著有瑕疵的風險——通常有利于某些人群，而對其他人不利。盡管如此，標準測試已經越來越普遍，影響范圍也越來越廣。
So much so, that among the many criticisms of leading educational systems, is teaching to the test - an overemphasis on test scores that reflect how well students memorize information and know the tests rather than a true understanding of concepts. That aside, some countries have raced to top of these international lists.
在領先的教育系統中，備受爭議的就是應試教育——過度強調考試得分，只反映學生記憶信息，了解考試內容的能力，而不是真正的理解知識點。在這一方面，一些國家位于國際名單榜首。
Singapore is currently on top and the US,is ranked 29th.
新加坡目前處于首位，而美國排在第29位。
