Another article about Shanghai's impressive results (here was the first article I sent around: Top Test Scores From Shanghai Stun Educators, www.nytimes.com/2010/12/07/education/07education.html):

The Shanghai students performed well, experts say, for the same reason students from other parts of Asia — including South Korea, Singapore and Hong Kong — do: Their education systems are steeped in discipline, rote learning and obsessive test preparation.

Public school students in Shanghai often remain at school until 4 p.m., watch very little television and are restricted by Chinese law from working before the age of 16.

"Very rarely do children in other countries receive academic training as intensive as our children do," said Sun Baohong, an authority on education at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences. "So if the test is on math and science, there's no doubt Chinese students will win the competition."

But many educators say China's strength in education is also a weakness. The nation's education system is too test-oriented, schools here stifle creativity and parental pressures often deprive children of the joys of childhood, they say.

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Shanghai Schools' Approach Pushes Students to Top of Tests

By DAVID BARBOZA

Published: December 29, 2010

A teacher instructed students in class at the middle school associated with Jing'An Teachers' College in central Shanghai.

"Who in this class can tell me how to demonstrate two lines are parallel without using a proportional segment?" Ms. Li called out to about 40 students seated in a cramped classroom.