How does the education in an American school compare to those in other countries where students achieve more? Amanda Ripley set out to find out by following three American teens who went overseas to attend school in Finland, Poland, and South Korea. She writes about them in her book, “The Smartest Kids In The World and How They Got That Way,” which she discussed with me on America Weekend.
I asked her how the educational system in those nations differs from ours, what motivated these kids, what challenges they faced, how their standards for teachers vary from ours, and whether US educators are looking at those models to try to improve our schools. Listen to our conversation here.