What is comparative education?
Comparative education is a system used for differentiating and analyzing assessments measured in educational-like settings from countries around the world.

What determines a country’s rank in education?
Studies such as International Mathematics and Science Study and Programme for International Student Assessment determine a country’s rank in education.

Explain three problems with the global ranking system that is currently in place.
1. The global ranking system formats the curriculum to the test. The global ranking system is measured by tests, and therefore schools enforce curriculums with solely content that is on the tests. This does not offer both the students or teachers agency in what they’re teaching and/or learning.
2. Teachers will “teach to the test” due to the global ranking system, and therefore their own individuality and personal goals towards education will be partially or fully erased. This process teaches students how to take tests, not how to be thoughtful and curious learners.
3. The global ranking system teaches students that their goals in school are to obtain high test scores. This defeats other purposes for learning that teachers and students strive to actually have (learning for the purpose of growth, setting personal goals, etc.)

• Rebecca Panitch

What is comparative education?
Comparative education is the evaluation of different educational systems. This comparison can be between two or more countries. According to Harold Noah (1985)and Farooq Joubish (2009) comparative education has four purposes, “to describe educational systems, processes, or outcomes; to assist in the development of educational institutions and practices; to highlight the relationships between education and society; and to establish generalized statements about education that are valid in more than one country.”
What determines a country's rank in education?
Countries are ranked based on the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). This assessment is given to 15 year olds in 72 countries every three years. The test takes two hours and students are assessed in science, mathematics, reading, collaborative problem solving and financial literacy.
Explain three problems with the global ranking system that is currently in place
I think that the first problem with the current ranking system is that it is focused on one test. Currently teachers are losing their professional autonomy and learning is being focused on successful performance in standardized tests. This is also reducing education to a numerical scores, losing much of the qualitative information that helps to explain the rank.
The second problem is that because the test is given in 72 countries one test cannot properly test total educational knowledge because each countries curriculum cannot perfectly match the test.
The last problem is that students aren’t benefiting from the ranking system. “For example, the widespread approach of increasing external pressure on teachers and students in order to improve the quality and effectiveness of education has not been proved to be sustainable” (Fullan, 2005; Hargreaves & Fink, 2005).

• Eleanor Wiley

(You can ignore the due dates on the assignments section)

• Mackenzie Dankle