CHAPTER 3: Western Influences on the East, Eastern Influences on the West: Lessons for the East and West

Recent international test results, Program for International Student Assessment (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, 2007) and Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (Mullis, Martin, Kennedy, & Foy, 2007) have highlighted the strength of educational attainment in several Eastern (both Asian and European) countries. These were unsurprising as under the auspices of the International Association for the Study of Educational Achievement (IEA) and a rival group, Educational Testing Services’ International Assessment of Educational Progress (IAEP), international studies have consistently pointed to comparatively higher levels of educational performance in the Pacific Rim and Eastern Europe. Concern that educational performance in the United Kingdom might be declining had earlier led the Office for Standards in Education (the English national inspectorate) to commission a Review of International Surveys Involving England Between 1964 and 1990 (Reynolds & Farrell, 1996). The review confirmed that the performance of English children, in mathematics and science was not only poor but also had deteriorated relative to other countries since the 1960s. Shortly afterward, the first results of the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) were made available. Comparative assessments, undertaken in 1995, involving 500,000 students in 41 countries, confirmed the strength of many Eastern (European and Asian) countries and resulted in dismay in both the United Kingdom and the United States.