By Julie O’Connor/The Star-Ledger
Gov. Chris Christie’s right: In this competitive new world, our kids are falling behind.
On international tests of critical thinking, American students do mediocre at best. We’ve tried for years to improve, to no avail, as other countries make huge strides.
It’s a national vexation. We spend more per student than nearly every other country, have more sports and activities and gadgets. So why are their kids smarter?
Could it be because they’re spending more time in class?
In his budget address last week, Christie announced he was allocating $5 million to study the idea of extending our school day and year. It’s an emerging trend across the country and a reform that’s already helped a number of highly successful charter schools in our state.
Yet while it’s true that Americans spend less time studying than students in some higher-performing countries, that’s not the whole story, says Amanda Ripley, author of “The Smartest Kids in the World — and How They Got That Way.”
Ripley, a journalist who grew up in Lawrenceville, spent a year shadowing American teenagers living in South Korea, Finland and Poland. She found that extra time can help — but it won’t necessarily make kids smarter. She recently spoke to The Star-Ledger about what works and what doesn’t around the world.
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