International Education Rankings: A Comparative Analysis of America vs. the Rest of the World

While researching for my Junior Theme, I stumbled across an article from 2011 which ranked the education systems of the world (the article originally compares the UK to the rest of the world). The results are based on a test given to 470,000 15-year-olds from all over the globe which include numeracy, literacy and science portions. The top ten nations rank as follows:
1. China
2. South Korea
3. Finland
4. Hong Kong
5. Singapore
6. Canada 
7. New Zealand
8. Japan
9. Australia
10. Netherlands




To the dismay of many, the US ranked 17th.

But how is it possible that the "greatest country in the world" could rank a mere 17th on a global education scale? Could it be a lack of funding on local, state and/or federal levels? Poor teaching? Poor study skills by the students? Or could it be an over-emphasis on testing instead of in-depth lessons which thoroughly teach students the material? Could it be that the government is simply throwing money into the system, praying for test scores to go up?

In my paper, I will be searching for answers to this multi-billion dollar question. I'll look at why the Department of Education determines how much money to give to schools based on standardized testing, if it works, and what are some possible solutions to this failing system which has been concerning millions of Americans for the past three decades.

TV Tokenism - Bernie Mac Show

The Bernie Mac Show was a very successful TV sitcom on a network channel with an almost entirely black cast, therefore this REFUTES the thesis. It aired on FOX from 2001-2006 for 5 seasons (total of 106 episodes). The air times varied from Wednesdays at 9:30, 9:00, 8:00, Fridays at 8:00, 8:30, 9:00 and Mondays at 8:00, 8:30. In it's first two seasons, the average ratings were at almost 10 million viewers. As the series progressed, ratings continued to slowly go downhill until FOX announced that it would stop production of the show after it's fifth season. 

Written and produced by Larry Wilmore

Main characters: Bernie, Wanda, Vanessa, Jordan and Bryanna aka "Baby-girl"

Very few white characters are on the show. The few that exist have very minor roles and don't appear for more than two or three episodes. 

Celebrity cameo appearances were frequent. These stars were predominantly black, however. Black celebrities like Ice Cube, Don Cheadle, Chris Rock and Wesley Snipes made appearances on the show. White celebrities like Ashton Kutcher and Penn Jillette have made appearances as well. 

SOURCES:

http://www.tv.com/shows/the-bernie-mac-show/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0285341/

Image courtesy of Google

Russia's "Fraudulent" Elections

This past Sunday, Russia held it's quadrennial elections. As most people expected, Prime Minister (and former president) Vladimir Putin won the election. He ended up winning a staggering 63.75% of the vote. He was one of five candidates who ran for office. Despite huge riots by the Russian people throughout the nation against Putin in past weeks, he managed to obliterate the other four candidates, garnering more votes than all of them put together.

Former KGB Agent, former Prime Minister and current President of Russia: Vladimir Putin

A group called the "League of Voters" (which was birthed back in December when Putin's party took control of Russia's parliament) said that "civil society in Russia was insulted" because of the "scammed" elections.

These protesters aren't the only ones crying foul. Several news outlets have been reporting fraudulent results, specifically from St. Petersburg, but a total of 4,000 polling stations are suspected of malpractice. 91,000 polling stations were used for this election, which makes 4,000 seem miniscule. But in the grand scheme of things, that is an alarming number. Putin had a little over 45 million votes; trying to measure exactly how many of them were scammed is practically impossible, but it's safe to say that a very large amount of them were (assuming that Putin did, in fact, tamper with votes).

An internet poll asked what our country should do about Putin and the crisis going on in Russia. 43.54% said we should do nothing and let them deal with this on their own. 30.88% said we should distance ourselves from him. What do you think? Should we get involved and risk further tension or let it slide/mind our own business and not get involved?

An even more important question: what has our country done in order to prevent a scandal like this from happening in our own voting system? Can we do more to help other countries have fairer elections?