Briefly, Why Taiwan's 1st in Math

Presenters Shu-Wei Wu and Mary Kay McGurl in the session, "Academic Excellence: Learning from Taiwanese Excellence," presented a compare/contrast of some of the defining qualities of U.S. and Taiwanese schools and education.

Notably, in Taiwan, parents pay for everything. Lunch, materials, uniforms, school--if they can pay, they do. If they can't pay, students are guaranteed an education from grades 1–9. Also, all K and preK learning must be arranged by parents through private institutions. In terms of curriculum, Taiwanese students don't take electives--it's all core curriculum, and subjects are not sequenced by categories. For example, math is taught as math, not algebra, geometry, and calculus.

Students in Taiwan overall have a strong work ethic, a lot of support from parents, excellent educational resources (facilities and materials), national standards, mentor-master teachers that follow them for several years, maximized learning time (9-hour days, longer school year), high
accountability (public rankings), a core curriculum with much repetition, year-round assignments, and individualized learning (for example, Cram Schools that focus on one area of learning).

So of these attributes that contribute to Taiwan's high PISA rankings, which might be readily incorporated into the ways schools work in the U.S.?