By Julie Bell

The NCSL Study Group on International Education departed China over the weekend. It has been an enlightening week in Shanghai and Beijing, meeting with Chinese and U.S. officials and visiting schools.

The members of the group were trying to understand what lessons the U.S. can learn from China and they are returning home with some important observations and even more questions. 

Overall, the legislators and staff in the delegation were impressed with the clear national priority placed on teachers and teaching. It's a system where top students are recruited into the teaching profession, teachers regularly work collaboratively with each other to improve, top teachers spend time teaching in the more disadvantaged schools and teacher preparation is rigorous. 

The group was impressed by the discipline and attention of students in all the classrooms they saw, even given the large class sizes. They were struck by the simplicity of the classrooms. While all the schools we saw were beautiful, the classrooms were basic, without gadgets or fancy technology.

They talked about the rigor of the nationally defined curriculum, emphasizing English, Chinese, science and mathematics. They were impressed with the fundamental value parents and students place on education. They were intrigued that the country is working to redistribute resources to less privileged schools and working to redesign and develop a quality vocational/technical system. 

At the same time, important questions persist: The group saw three schools. How typical were they? What is the experience of rural and suburban students?  Did the Chinese just show us the top schools?

This is something the group plans to examine further. Is there too much pressure on the students? One student told us that she studies from 8 a.m. until 9 p.m. because passing the high school test means going to college and that means getting a good job. How effective is this “tracking” system—where students pass a test to go to college and others continue on to the vocational/technical system?

The group will be working throughout 2015 studying the lessons learned from top performing countries including Japan, South Korea, Finland, Poland and Estonia. At the end of the year, the group will develop recommendations to their colleagues about what states can learn from these high performing countries.

We think it will be an important statement. Stay tuned and follow the work of the Study Group at NCSL's Education homepage.

Julie Bell is a director in NCSL's education program.

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