The Learning Gap and all of his research published up to that point rest solely on a math test given to 1st and 5th graders. Once you get beyond the K-12 setting, though, the apparent advantage of Asian systems disappears. Here describes parts of Chicago in terms usually reserved for Somalia and Sarajevo. Savage Inequalities paints a grim picture of urban schools, and The Rural Underclass does the same for the largely invisible poverty of the countryside. Nothing, I submit.
Schools exist within a culture.
To glorify Asian schools without picking up the rest of the cultural baggage is to try to graft a vine onto a concrete wall. The Second Bracey Report on the Condition of Public Education. The International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement. There Are No Children Here . Savage Inequalities .