Curriculum, culture, and achievement: A comparison of the achievement of United States nationals, host-country nationals, and third-country nationals in selected American international schools in Quito and Bogota.

摘要

This study investigated the achievement of 52 nationalities of students in four American international schools in Quito, Ecuador, and Bogota, Columbia. The grade point averages (GPAs), Stanford Achievement Test (SAT) scores, and English levels of 353 senior students were recorded, and opinionnaires were completed by 72 teachers and administrators.;The purpose of the study was to determine whether or not following European-style curriculums would result in American students equalling European and Japanese students in achievement.;In order to avoid the "apples to oranges" syndrome which invalidates many cross-national studies (Hurn, 1983), this study compared international students who all lived in the same cities, studied in the same schools in the same language, and shared a similar sociocultural milieu.;The study found that U.S. national students superceded their foreign classmates only on the SAT verbal section. Students from the industrialized countries of Europe and Asia, despite language handicaps, outscored American students in mathematics, equaled them in GPA, and were rated higher by their teachers, most of whom were Americans. The study found that achievement was not related to curriculum; that children of educators or holders of graduate-level degrees scored high overall; and that English was a threshold variable in mathematics, that is, once students could function in basic English, they learned mathematics when taught in English as well as their native English-speaking classmates.;The study concluded that the factors which most influenced achievement were outside of school. The lower achievement levels of U.S. and Latin American students were due chiefly to differences in culture, respect for education, parent and family attitudes, and the value systems of the students themselves rather than to differences in schooling. European and Asian students outscored and outrated U.S. and Latin American students essentially because they worked harder, not because of curricular differences.;This study recommended that U.S. educators shift their emphasis away from curricular reform and use their political influences to support legislation and programs designed to reduce poverty, generate better jobs, limit excessive litigiousness in the society, and make U.S. parents more responsible for their children's academic progress.