Winning formula: USA tops International Math Olympiad (GGT)

[Independent voter]

The gov of Texas doesn't look like much but Texas is graduating a lot of students. This will add up to a lot of productivity in the future. And yes, Rick Perry is running for president.

[Kasierith]

A Stoner and 3 Asians pulling off a competition win.

Now, one could congratulate on the feat..... If only it would reflect the skill set of the majority..
Finding 5 exceptionally good students out of the large pool of students isn't representative to the rest, which rather sucks in international comparison.
But maybe it's a motivation and inspiration to help with a broader catchup.

Because it isn't like China and India have ~4 times the population of the US. And South Korea has tens of millions fewer people than places like Germany and the UK, which held nice comfortable places in the 20's. Speaking of India, they did outstandingly well considering they have the second highest population in the world. Really drawing on that massive population, aren't they.

Your criticism really isn't compelling.

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http://www.webometrics.info/en
You have 270 colleges in the top 1000. The other 2800 colleges in the US are below top 1000.
Like the "Tennessee College of Applied Technology Whiteville" which is not even in the top 20 000 colleges in the world.

The top 14 countries are in the US. Of the top 100, 56 are in the US.

Perfection fallacy. Drawing out bias since forever.

[Jaxi]

http://www.webometrics.info/en
You have 270 colleges in the top 1000. The other 2800 colleges in the US are below top 1000.
Like the "Tennessee College of Applied Technology Whiteville" which is not even in the top 20 000 colleges in the world.

You're really making a stretch with this argument. It doesn't take much searching to see most lists put us near the top for higher education, if not the top. I understand you might not like the US, or might not like how expensive our Universities are, but our Universities are, on average, excellent.
http://www.universitas21.com/article...cation-systems

[alltrueist]

http://www.webometrics.info/en
You have 270 colleges in the top 1000. The other 2800 colleges in the US are below top 1000.
Like the "Tennessee College of Applied Technology Whiteville" which is not even in the top 20 000 colleges in the world.

Again, you're not making much sense. 270/1000, does any other country boast as many top institutions? The top 14 schools are all from USA. What country do you believe has a better university system than the US?

[Kasierith]

Well a group of a few students doesn't represent the whole education system.
If you stop 100 people on the street and 95% of them don't know how is the ∑ symbol is even used, then it represents the educational system.

The US has always had an education model oriented towards utility rather than theory. This model, which fed directly into a more robust middle class, is one of the many reasons why the US drifted further and further ahead of the USSR during the cold war, contrasting their very theory-oriented model of upper education. The lapse in the US education system is that the job market has shifted dramatically while the education system has stagnated considerably, but those failures are due to the failure of the utility-based model, not due to a further drift from theoretical models even at basic levels of things like early calculus.

That and a massive cultural shift in the 90s that ostracized basic education through social media fight the power bullshit.

[Theinquisition]

Tony........ The Harlem Globetrotters are the most artistic Basketball players on the globe.
Does that make the entirety of the basketball players in the US as artistically skilled?
By far not, most people suck and can't score a hoop when their lived would depend on it..

And that's how you need to see that event too.

I'm sure it can be said for every country, I'm sure that not every German Engineer is perfect at building cars (though it would seem that way)

[Tierbook]

What's needed to pass HS in Europe anyway, as far as grades go. Where i live in SC you need at least a 70 to pass a class, but I've heard of some European countries where a 40 is passing. Oh hey there's a wiki for that
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gradin...ems_by_country

[Wildtree]

I'm sure it can be said for every country, I'm sure that not every German Engineer is perfect at building cars (though it would seem that way)

Hey absolutely correct, not every engineer is equally good.

I am not bashing those kids accomplishment... What I am aiming for is to not get comfortable about something that doesn't properly reflect the reality, because a few outstanding kids were far and beyond the rest of the pack..

If you look at this... Things look a lot less optimistic.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progra...ssessment#2012

Yeah, that's 2012, but in regards of education nothing has changed in the last couple years.
And there, the US students come in on 36th place.
I believe the country can and should do better.

[Kasierith]

Hey absolutely correct, not every engineer is equally good.

I am not bashing those kids accomplishment... What I am aiming for is to not get comfortable about something that doesn't properly reflect the reality, because a few outstanding kids were far and beyond the rest of the pack..

Who ever said that this "properly reflects reality?" The article specifically mentioned lapsing overall education in the country.

You are engaging in a strawman argument. No one is saying that the overall education in the US is perfect, or even that good. You are reacting to a small group of very good students who came out ahead in a rather significant moment and going in a completely different direction.

[Wildtree]

Who ever said that this "properly reflects reality?" The article specifically mentioned lapsing overall education in the country.

You are engaging in a strawman argument. No one is saying that the overall education in the US is perfect, or even that good. You are reacting to a small group of very good students who came out ahead in a rather significant moment and going in a completely different direction.

Huh? Are you on your period or something?
Or why do you react so zealous? No one is contesting the kids accomplishments and I even stated as much more than once, for myself.
BUT......
This does still relate to the school/education system in the US as a whole. And the entirety of the school system is lackluster. Extremely lackluster even.

[Tradewind]

lol all that green in Nevada.

"I'm gonna be a showgirl/blackjack dealer!"

[haxartus]

You're really making a stretch with this argument. It doesn't take much searching to see most lists put us near the top for higher education, if not the top. I understand you might not like the US, or might not like how expensive our Universities are, but our Universities are, on average, excellent.
http://www.universitas21.com/article...cation-systems

That's not how average works. You have 3000 universities, out of which about 100-200 are excellent. There is no "bad interpretation" here, 95% of your universities are below the top 1000 mark.
Pretty much all similar statistics on the internet pretend that universities below the top 500 doesn't exist, in which case the US would be great. But... they do. You just have too much universities, so on average your universities suck.

[Independent voter]

Are the women dressed in Indonesian fashion? Or Vietnamese?

[Kasierith]

Huh? Are you on your period or something?
Or why do you react so zealous? No one is contesting the kids accomplishments and I even stated as much more than once, for myself.
BUT......
This does still relate to the school/education system in the US as a whole. And the entirety of the school system is lackluster. Extremely lackluster even.

Considering the rather poor quality of your response, I really wouldn't go about complaining that others are overzealous in their assertions.

[Tierbook]

That's not how average works. You have 3000 universities, out of which about 100-200 are excellent. There is no "bad interpretation" here, 95% of your universities are below the top 1000 mark.
Pretty much all similar statistics on the internet pretend that universities below the top 500 doesn't exist, in which case the US would be great. But... they do. You just have too much universities, so on average your universities suck.

You're weighting is wrong as well though, You weight a "University" with maybe 500 students the same as a University with 40k people going to it.

[Tierbook]

David Stoner is about as american as it gets.

Dr. Who and Harry Potter are in the background as well...

[haxartus]

You're weighting is wrong as well though, You weight a "University" with maybe 500 students the same as a University with 40k people going to it.

University of Baltimore, for example, has 6000 students and it's rank 2400.
New Jersey City University is rank 4100 and it has about 9000 students.
Again, the ability for the human mind to ignore solid data when it contradicts it's beliefs is astonishing.

[Wildtree]

Considering the rather poor quality of your response, I really wouldn't go about complaining that others are overzealous in their assertions.

Sorry.... but you just reacted as if someone pissed in your coffee.... I'm not used to that from you, quite honestly.

My initial first comment was actually a lighthearted joke....
I said A Stoner and 3 Asians.... Purely cross referencing to the names of the kids and the dominating stereotypes.
Asians - attributed as smarter stereotype.... and the ones kid's name is Stoner.

Else the other argument still holds truth..
We're having a big education problem from the bottom up, and such success should not deflect from it and make people believe everything is golden.

[Fibh]

The top universities in the world are american. That doesn't mean the american university system is great, or even just decent for that matter. If you wanna work in Belgium with an american diploma, it better be from one of those top universities cause else you'll be laughed out of the room.

It matters very little how good your best is, when your worst is absolute shit compared to our worst. If some of your universities are some of the worst in the civilised world, your university system sucks. No matter how good your best ones are.

[Kasierith]

Sorry.... but you just reacted as if someone pissed in your coffee.... I'm not used to that from you, quite honestly.

I dislike strawman arguments. I'll be among the last to say that the US education system is fine; it was designed as a utilitarian model, and it has failed to keep up with the needs of the job market, indicating that it has ultimately failed the needs of the country overall.

But that's separate from this. Reacting to this and instantly going "but the US education has all these problems!" while true is still an irrelevant argument because it does not actually address anything that anyone has said.