Third World Challenge Exam

I thought this was pretty interesting.

A fellow named Bob Compton recently made a film called Two Million Minutes. The title refers to the two million minutes between the completion of eighth grade and high school graduation, and examines how different students across the globe spend these two million minutes--and how these choices affect these students economic future.

The website for the film includes a "Third World Challenge Exam." Here's what Compton has to say about it:

"Personally, I know that China and India are not “Third World" countries, but that is because I’ve traveled to those countries and I deeply admire their cultures and their people.

The inspiration for the name “Third World Challenge” came a statement made to me by a professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education when I showed my film Two Million Minutes for the HGSE faulty. “We have nothing to learn from education systems in Third World countries,” he intoned with much gravitas, “Much less a Third World country that lacks freedom of speech.” To my surprise, no other faculty member rose to challenge that statement.

While I certainly expected a more open-minded and globally aware audience at Harvard, I have now screened my film around the country and a surprisingly large segment of the American population believes India and China’s K-12 education systems are inferior to that of the United States. While no American makes the statement with the boundless hubris of a Harvard professor, the conclusion often is the same – America is number one in education and always will be.

This of course is not true. American students’ academic achievement has been declining vis-à-vis other developed countries for more than 20 years. What is now surprising and worrisome is US students are even lagging the developing world.

If our athletic performance at the Olympics were as poor as our global academic performance it would be a national crisis and every level of government would be attempting to respond. That we blithely ignore the declining intellectual standards of American students seems almost insane. The cognitive skills of our children will determine both America’s economic future and the economic future of each child.

But perhaps I overstate the high standards of the developing world, particularly India and China. So, to test that assumption, my company Indian Math Online has created the “Third World Challenge” – this is a shortened and greatly simplified version of the multi-day proficiency test that every 10th grader in India must pass to go on to the 11th grade.

Think American education standards are higher than the Third World – well why not have your 11th or 12th grade son or daughter try the Third World Challenge? After all in just a few more years the challenge will be in the marketplace for high paying jobs – might as well find out now if your son or daughter is competitive."

Up for the challenge? Take the exam here.