U.S. Schools Importing Singaporean Texts

By Debra Viadero

This is the first of what will be a regular page examining education abroad and how practices elsewhere influence education in the United States.

Thanks to the Third International Mathematics and Science Study, one of Singapore's most talked-about exports these days is neither the computer equipment from its factories nor the rubber from its plantations.

It's mathematics textbooks.

Elementary and middle school students in the 247- square-mile Southeast Asian nation ranked first in the world on the math portions of the TIMSS assessments, which were given in 1994 and 1995. To earn that title, Singaporeans outpaced their counterparts in 39 other countries, including such educational powerhouses as Japan and Taiwan. They also outscored students in Belgium, Canada, France, Hong Kong, and Switzerland. And they...