The Test Is Not The Truth

The interview opens in contradiction. Chinese education is praised because Shanghai beats the world in math, science, and reading, and derided because the same system is said to produce soulless automatons Source trail 1:172:10 Very positive reports from my friend Alison Friedman. Anyway, by wonderful coincidence, we actually will be talking about educational exchange among other aspects of education in China. Education in China is sometimes t...in the pedagogical system in China, and about the rampant cheating that may result from some of the above. So today we're delighted to be joined by Jiang Xueqin, who is deputy principal of Tsinghua Fuzhong, the high sch... . Jiang first narrows the data: PISA entered China in 2009, but only Shanghai results were publicly released because OECD trusted that methodology.

Then he changes what the score means. Source trail 4:235:166:16 Absolutely. So it's basically Shanghai, then you have South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, Taiwan. Hong Kong, Japan. Hong Kong, Macau, they're in the top 10 for sure. Right. So these Asian countries dominate these PISA ranki...Sure. My issues with the PISA are many. But the first issue is that the PISA test is a snapshot of the education system through the eyes of a 14 -year -old. So only 14 -year -olds are tested. So that's tested from the a... PISA does not reveal education as such; it reveals how fourteen-year-olds perform in a school system. That age is volatile, and East Asian systems are unusually good at getting students to sit still through long tests. Shanghai wins a test that rewards precisely the kind of discipline its culture trains.

The sharper claim is that every test is biased toward test-taking. IQ, SAT, Gaokao, PISA: each measures the ability to perform inside its own ritual. East Asia has a long high-stakes testing culture, so the test becomes an arena where the Chinese kid in the back can finally say, this is my opportunity to shine Source trail 8:42 Chinese love taking tests, right? I mean, in America, you know, you say to a class, okay, we're doing a test today. All the kids groan, right? Except for that one Chinese kid in the back who's like, yes, this is my oppo... .

Shanghai K-12 is, in Jiang’s view, the best China has to offer for fundamental literacy and numeracy. Source trail 9:48 terms of teaching kids fundamental skills, especially numerous in literacy, the Chinese education system is very good. And the Shanghai school system is at the K -12 level, the very best China has to offer. What does it... The national system is a blend: an old examination civilization that rewards orthodoxy and conformity, and a Stalinist project that taught countryside people enough numeracy and literacy to become factory workers.

That blend gives China three school functions: mass basic skills, political orthodoxy across a huge diverse country, and merit allocation of scarce education resources. Source trail 10:4411:24 So what we have in China is basically a blended model of a confusion system with a Stalinist system. The system has three major objectives. The first major objective is to make sure that the Chinese education system is...So the system is very good at indoctrinating a sort of political orthodoxy throughout the country. And the third major goal was basically to distribute scarce education resources in the fairest and most merit -oriented... The Gaokao trains the child from birth because it is the mechanism that promises fair distribution.

The cost is the episode’s central wound. High-stakes testing equips a nation with basic skills, but the same machine limits higher-order thinking: creativity, empathy, judgment, collaboration. China now needs managers, designers, entrepreneurs, and researchers, but the school pipeline overproduces the kind of person who can follow the test. Source trail 11:2412:1713:3314:10 So the system is very good at indoctrinating a sort of political orthodoxy throughout the country. And the third major goal was basically to distribute scarce education resources in the fairest and most merit -oriented...And that's where China is most lacking right now.

Reform runs into parents before it reaches policy. Parents suspect that if the test is weakened, the elite will take the ladder away. Jiang states the fear bluntly: without a score, all that remains is guanxi, and middle- or lower-class families are finished. Source trail 12:5814:1016:09 You know, we always have this problem with, as soon as you try to reform the gaokao or if you suggest, for example, lowering the percentage of English or reforming it in such a way as to encourage creativity, that one o...And during the May 4th era. That's right. And the communist elite, people who run the economy, are concerned that the education system is not producing the workers necessary to maintain China's economic development. So...

That is why Gaokao is not merely an exam. In a low-trust society it bypasses institutions. Parents do not trust teacher recommendations, qualitative assessments, or civil society. A national score feels objective and fair because it does not ask the family to believe a principal, a committee, or a bureaucracy. Source trail 15:0816:09 As we know, bureaucracies are always resistant to any change. There's bureaucratic inertia. So that's one major problem. But then the other problems are cultural, which is that, you know, China, it's very much a society...Exactly. So again, the issue is that China is a very large country, huge population with very limited education resources. Peking and Tsinghua are the two best universities. Everyone's trying to test into it. Everyone's...

Official reform language does not solve this. Jiang says administrators have perfected public doublethink: they tell visiting delegations and reporters that they want less pressure and more reform, then continue the same old test focus once the visitors leave. Source trail 18:1718:54 There's nobody here to fight the fight now. Exactly. Exactly. That's the problem. I mean, I was going to point that out. Exactly. That's a really difficult conundrum then. You talked though about one of the problems bei...Chinese administrators, Chinese Democrats are amazing at double think. So they're very good at, you know, saying something in public and then actually doing something completely different. So you visit a lot of high sch...

When Kaiser asks for actionable steps, Jiang first reaches for Camus. Reforming Chinese education is a Sisyphean struggle Source trail 20:20 And the boulder would just come right down after, you know, you roll up the hill. So it was a very futile, eternal task. And you can make the argument that Chinese education system, reforming the system here is a, is th... because school is tied to politics, culture, and society. You do not change the classroom without moving the whole social order.

The prescription is not a neat import from abroad. China needs openness to criticism and new ideas, diversity among schools instead of one monolithic national form, and a culture of risk where principals can try stupid ideas and fail until some local formula works. Source trail 20:4921:42 Okay. So I believe the prescription for education reform is to create a creative and innovative culture in education. And that requires three things. One is openness. The openness to new ideas. The openness to criticism...the school system in China. And third is basically to create a culture of risk -taking. To basically empower principals to try new things. And most of the time, these new ideas will be stupid and they'll fail. But then...

Jiang’s optimism is chastened by memory. He once predicted China would collapse around 2000 or 2001 and was wrong. China changes in generational leaps. That dynamism makes reform possible if the bureaucracy can create space for experimentation: Shenzhen, private progressive schools, and university admissions reform become hopeful but unfinished tests. Source trail 22:4723:3024:3125:27 This is the sort of thing that only happens in generations. And you guys have been here in China for a long time. I've been in China for 15 years. And what we've seen in China is that it changes a lot. It changes very q...So, I think that in the coming years, we're going to see new opportunities. But, but again, I think the former remains the same, which is like, you know, we have to create space for experimentation, innovation within th...

There are two parent factions. Most parents defend Gaokao because it is the only visible mobility mechanism. A smaller but powerful faction exits: America, Canada, New Zealand, even high school abroad. That exit is understandable, but it drains reform voice from inside China. Source trail 16:3917:1018:00 Can I point out something with, along the subject of parents, there's two contradictory groups of parents. One of the ones that we just were talking about that, that say, you know, they're very test oriented. They want...So it's kind of a weird situation. Well, I mean, it is a weird situation and David's absolutely right. There are now two major factions of parents. The majority, of course. Of course, are those who are probably happy wi...

Admissions reform hits the same suspicion. Interviews, GPA, achievements, holistic criteria - all of these may be sensible. But the unresolved question is public appetite for change when people believe institutions will just let the elite monopolize education again. Source trail 26:3026:3827:31 Was it Tsinghua that was also going to open up some, some actual research? Interviews, personal interviews with certain applicants? Was it Tsinghua or what's going on with that? Right.So, so, so the Gaokao, that's the major area of focus. So the idea of Gaokao is how do we go about changing it in a way that's acceptable to the public? So they're looking at many different models, including diversifyin...

The interview then turns personal. Source trail 27:3127:4928:1229:01 And And that question isn't being settled right now. The other major trend that we're seeing, and David alluded to this much earlier, is study abroad. Study abroad is a very exciting trend because you have all these you...I mean, that's, that's an important thing. You had mentioned a figure of about 200,000 currently enrolled in secondary, I mean, post -secondary educational institutions. I've seen another figure of just last year, 235,0... Study abroad is not an abstraction for Jiang. The hosts ask because he was born in China, moved to Canada, went to Yale, and returned to work in Chinese education. The policy question becomes a life question: what happens to a student when the school culture changes faster than the self can adapt?

Jiang’s story is not triumphant exchange-program brochure prose. In Canada he was shy, awkward, bullied, and teased. At Yale he felt like a fraud among upper-class intellectual families. His father was a cook; his mother a seamstress. He ran away into China and now helps other students go abroad, knowing they may meet the same scars. Source trail 29:1229:5830:52 Sure. Absolutely. This is a topic I've been thinking a lot about. You know, study abroad, it's a very personal issue for me because, as you say, I was an immigrant to Canada and I came back to work in the education syst...Toronto, where being popular is very important and being cool and being good at sports and being good with girls. It's Canada. They can just forget about trying to be cool. Right. Sure. But I had a very tough time growi...

The sentence is harsh: China and the West are not a good marriage. Chinese schooling trains skills that work in Chinese society: do not talk too much, do not question authority, go with the flow, use networks. American classrooms demand something else: speak, debate, write a paper, advocate an opinion whether it is right or wrong. Source trail 31:1232:10 But at the same time, because I've had this experience and because I see the dangers, the inherent dangers of Chinese encountering a Western education system. I'm a very vocal critic of this trend. Actually, I write a l...The professor expects you to say something interesting or unique in classroom discussion. The professor expects you to write a paper and advocate your opinion, whether it's right or wrong. These are all hallmarks of the...

That mismatch reaches the body. Jiang says confident and happy students absorb new ideas, while stress triggers fight-or-flight and the system shuts down. A brilliant student can look empty if fear, doubt, self-hatred, and withdrawal are blocking the conversation. Source trail 32:3433:2034:20 I get emails all the time, and I just got one this week, so while I'm thinking about it, from friends of mine who are academics or professors in different universities. And they write to me because they know I'm in Chin...So what makes us human special is our resilience, our ability to grow, to adapt. But the problem is that when Chinese go to America, the culture is so foreign to these Chinese students, so open, so diverse, so vocal, th...

The door-key example gives the synthesis. Chinese guidance can teach a child the skill quickly; American trial can teach general problem solving. Jiang calls the contrast oversimplified, then keeps what matters: China respects hard work and sacrifice, America protects openness, individuality, and diverse discussion. The answer is not choosing one civilization of school against the other. It is learning how discipline and freedom belong together. Source trail 36:0836:4737:1639:0039:42 Let me ask, there's a book by Howard Gardner. That's probably way out of date. Yeah. Well, no, that one, but there's also one called To Open Minds. It's specifically about China. Yeah. Sure. And the example, and I've gi...The, the American approach on the other hand is supposed to be, you just hand the key to the kid and say, you figure out how to open the door. And so the kid tries and struggles and everything that they finally get it....

Even the recommendations keep the education argument moving. David raises Chinese orthography as labor-intensive memorization; Jiang expands through Marianne Wolf: Chinese script is weakly phonological, so spoken and written language are separated, and language learning takes many more years. Source trail 40:4241:3642:05 Okay. This week. Again, keeping, avoiding attention deficit disorder. I'm going to recommend something in keeping with this topic. So one book in particular, but there's two books. There's a book by William C. Hanas cal...And this particular book makes the case, at least the ergonomic case or the efficiency case, that, that it is such a drag on the educational system and also is a hindrance to certain kinds of critical thinking or, or ce...

Jiang’s book list favors motivation, creativity, discussion, and neuroplasticity. When Kaiser jokes about Outliers and rice farming, Jiang’s answer is teacherly: a debatable argument can still be useful if it creates discussion and debate. Education is not just the correct answer; it is the practice of making minds move. Source trail 45:2946:0346:08 Great. Zhang Xieqin. So books on education, I recommend. So definitely the book called The Natural Assumption by Judith Rich Harris. It's a book that's really interesting. It's a social animal. David Brooks. That's a ve...Doesn't it put out that silly notion that rice farming is responsible for better math and medical capability?