Britain Turns to Chinese Textbooks to Improve Its Math Scores<br />Another series adapted from China to fit British curriculum requirements is used in around 400 primary schools in England,<br />according to Ni Ming, an editor at East China Normal University Press, the Chinese publisher of those books.<br />Under a $54 million initiative funded by the government, more than half the primary schools in England will adopt a teaching approach to math<br />that is used in top-performing places like Shanghai and Singapore.<br />Starting in January, teachers in England will have the option of using "Real Shanghai<br />Mathematics," a series of 36 textbooks translated directly from Chinese into English.<br />The mastery approach is believed to have propelled students in Hong Kong, Shanghai<br />and Singapore to the top of the rankings for the Program for International Student Assessment, a respected exam known as PISA, which tests about half a million 15-year-olds in over 60 countries every three years.<br />Mr. Ni, the Chinese publisher, said that the company was in talks with education representatives<br />in several other countries, like the United States, about adapting its workbooks.<br />Now, some British schools will try to replicate that success by using translated textbooks<br />that are otherwise all but identical to those in public elementary schools around Shanghai.
