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为什么国际教育领域排名存在瑕疵
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.
国际社会标杆管理非常困难，但是其中最复杂的应该就是教育领域。作为公认的经济驱动者和国家进步的催化剂，教育与经济和社会政策之间有着密切的关系——各国的政策各有不同。根据每个国家的文化，价值观和当前形势，各国的教育重心也有所不同。一个国家的课程安排或许可以反映这些，所以国际教育对比通常不能精确地反映知识和学习情况。例如，在美国，我们看到STEM（科学、技术、工程和数学）专业如此受到推崇是因为这些专业在推动美国经济发展方面的重要性。美国的高端行业包括航空航天，电讯和汽车，所以国家需要受到高等教育的创新人才加入航空航天工程等行业，促进行业发展。另一方面，比如中国，或许更侧重技术和职业训练，支持其大规模的卓越的制造业。
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.
我们的教育重心也会随着时间的推移而做出改变，以满足时代需求。如果你看过电影《星际穿越》，你就会非常明白——当食物稀缺出现的时候，整个学校课程都会发生变化，侧重于耕作和农业，而不是艺术和建筑。尽管这只是电影，然而这个观念同样适用于现在。时代背景非常重要。所以，对于教育来说，没有适合所有国家不同背景的考核标准。
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.”
这是不可能的。实际上，用于评估国际教育情况的有名的PISA（Program for International Student Assessment）(国际学生评估项目的缩写）只考察数学，阅读和科学，而忽视了其他领域，比如社会科学或音乐等等。PISA非常明确地表示，它“并不考察学生在学校特定课程的情况”。
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.
但是让国际教育程度考察更加复杂的是，他们试图考察的领域也存在着弊端。考试非常难以进行，因为考试只是少量的代表——代表你所有知识的少量知识。但是你可能没有掌握要考的内容，尤其是在没有明确的统一标准的国际范围内。
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，即使有着统一标准，考试仍然存在着有瑕疵的风险——通常有利于某些人群，而对其他人不利。尽管如此，标准测试已经越来越普遍，影响范围也越来越广。
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.
在领先的教育系统中，备受争议的就是应试教育——过度强调考试得分，只反映学生记忆信息，了解考试内容的能力，而不是真正的理解知识点。在这一方面，一些国家位于国际名单榜首。
Singapore is currently on top and the US,is ranked 29th.
新加坡目前处于首位，而美国排在第29位。
