Topic 3: Curriculum of the Home

Of the economically advanced countries, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Korea took the first three places in advanced mathematics performance by 15-year-olds. Twenty-four percent of the students in these countries (on average) were advanced, in contrast to only 6% in the United States (Hanushek, Peterson, & Woessmann, 2011). East Asian countries have long done well on international comparisons in mathematics and science, and their economies have grown as much as three times the rate of Western countries. Despite potential socioeconomic and language handicaps, the children of East Asian immigrants to the U.S. also have excelled.

One plausible and evidenced-based explanation of stereotypical East Asian superior performance is the stimulating quality of the home environment. Walberg (2011) refers to the evidence of the benefits of educators encouraging parents to academically enrich the 92% of time that students spend outside school in the first 18 years of life (see also Redding, 2000 for practical principles and activities).