It all adds UP

(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-08-19 10:46

At every grade level, Chinese-American students seem to work harder - and do better - than the others in class.

Ellie Terry and Aneal Helms weren't your typical American tourists. They hadn't come to see the Great Wall, Bird's Nest, or Terracotta warriors. As they packed for a three-week tour through China, they had other sightseeing goals in mind: They wanted to visit as many high school math classrooms as possible.

Terry, 26, and Helms, 27, are high school math teachers in New York City. They work in classrooms that are ethnically and economically diverse, and in the three years since they began teaching, they've noticed a striking pattern. At every grade level, their Chinese-American students seem to work harder - and perform better - than the other students in class.

"Twenty percent of my students are Chinese-American," says Terry. "And they fill up all my top math classes."

The teachers didn't believe that their Chinese students were naturally smarter than the other students. But how could they explain the disparity they witnessed in their classrooms? Their observations suggested that the students from Chinese backgrounds were working with a different set of standards and expectations than their classmates.

Terry and Helms wanted to know more about the cultural environment that could produce such high-achieving students. So they decided to trace the phenomenon directly to its source, applying for a fellowship to study math education in China.

Recent studies show that American math students lag behind their peers in the developed world. The latest Trends in International Math and Science Study (TIMSS) ranked Hong Kong second and the United States 12th of 25 participating regions, despite largely similar teaching methodologies. Students from the Chinese mainland are also far ahead of their American peers.

Terry and Helms hoped they would observe successful Chinese teaching methods that they could take back to the United States and apply to their own teaching. Their journey took them through Hong Kong, Guilin, Yangshuo, Chengdu, Xi'an and Beijing.

In each city, Terry and Helms sought out teachers and students to talk to and learn from. They relied on contacts they'd made in the United States, relatives of former students, and friendly strangers.

"Everyone knows someone who's a teacher," Helms says. "So we'd say, 'Hey, do you know any teachers we can talk to? Can we visit their schools? Is there someone who can translate?'" The method was surprisingly successful.

They began their trip in Hong Kong with a visit to Summerbridge, a non-profit program that serves economically disadvantaged children. Summerbridge relies on a student-to-student learning model, with older, advanced students serving as mentors to students at lower levels.

In New York, they often work with students who, like the Summerbridge Hong Kong participants, come from poor families with limited English-language skills.

"In the US, we often use poverty as an excuse for poor math performance," Terry says. "There's an expectation that economically disadvantaged students will not do as well." She noted that students and their families help to perpetuate this attitude, and school administrations rarely seem to challenge it. "In China," she says, "there are no such excuses."

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