Article Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/07/education/07education.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 I wanted to start my study of differences in national education systems by establishing which countries do better on international standardized tests. I first discovered that the test used for international academic comparisons is called the Program for International Student Assessment or PISA. Then I found a New York Times article from 2010 entitled "Top Test Scores From Shanghai Stun Educators" that article had two main points. First, that the Untied States has fallen behind not only other first world-nations but even some developing or semi-developed nations such as Poland and China. The articles' second point was that China and Shanghai in particular was head and shoulders above not just the United States bu the rest of the world. These facts were interesting to me but what I found most fascinating and peculiar about the article was the extent to which the various people interviewed attempted to detract from China's brilliant academic performance. Excessive time studying, cultural obsessiveness and outright cheating were all used to explain away the massive test score differences between the US and China. While China's government does not have a great track record of honesty the PISA tests were independently administered by disinterested international non-profits and I find it hard to believe that such a large achievement gap could have been produced entirely through cheating. By refusing to acknowledge the validity of China's results we loose the ability to emulate what as worked in their system and apply it our own. I did find it comforting that Massachusetts routinely outpaces the rest of the nation in PISA performance, but we still did not do nearly as well as Shanghai.