This is the VOA Special English Education Report.
这里是美国之音慢速英语教育报道。
The Program for International Student Assessment, or PISA, is a two-hour test that compares the performance of fifteen-year-olds. In the latest test, the countries with the best readers were South Korea and Finland. But students in Shanghai, China, scored the highest of all in reading, mathematics and science.
国际学生评估项目（简称PISA）是一种比较15岁学生能力的测试，耗时2小时。在最近的一次测试中，阅读素养最好的国家是韩国和芬兰。但中国上海学生在阅读、数学和科学得分最高。
The next strongest results were in Hong Kong, Singapore, Canada, New Zealand and Japan.
紧随其次的分别是香港、新加坡、加拿大、新西兰和日本。
In all, around half a million students in more than seventy economies took the test last year. The test has been given every three years since two thousand. Last year was the first time Shanghai took part.
去年，总计有来自70多个经济体的近50万名学生参加了这次测试。该测试自2000年以来每3年举行一次。上海去年第一次参加测试。
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development just released the results. Andreas Schleicher is director of the Education Indicators and Analysis Division at the OECD.
经济合作与发展组织刚刚公布了结果。安德烈亚斯·施莱歇尔（Andreas Schleicher）是经合组织教育指标和分析司主任。
ANDREAS SCHLEICHER: "Asian countries value education more than other countries. They have given education a priority. Every child, every teacher, every parent knows that education is the gateway to success."
施莱歇尔：“亚洲各国比其他国家更重视教育，他们给予教育优先权。所有学生、教师、家长都视教育为成功之本。”
Mr. Schleicher says other education systems can learn from Shanghai. For example, he says education spending in the province has increased, including teacher pay and training. And administrators are putting teachers into challenging classroom situations to make them better at their jobs.
施莱歇尔称，其他教育体系可以学习上海。他举例说，上海教育投入有所提高，包括教师工资和培训。同时管理者将教师投入到具有挑战性的课堂情境，促使他们在自己的工作上做得更好。
ANDREAS SCHLEICHER: "They are pairing great with poorer schools in a way that is very systematic and very much focused on improving results."
施莱歇尔：“他们将好学校与较差的学校系统性配对，非常注重改善结果。”
In the PISA scoring system, Shanghai scored six hundred in math. By comparison, the United States scored four hundred eighty-seven.
在PISA评分系统中，上海在数学上得到了600分。相比之下，美国只得到了487分。
Shanghai's reading average was five hundred fifty-six. American fifteen-year-olds scored five hundred, the same as in Iceland and Poland.
上海的阅读平均得分是556分。美国十五岁学生和冰岛波兰学生一样，只得到了500分。
In science, Finland was second behind Shanghai. The United States was twenty-third.
在科学方面，芬兰落后于上海屈居第二。美国位居第23名。
Education Secretary Arne Duncan says the results show an urgent need for Americans to do more to remain competitive in the world economy. He points out that the United States has fallen from first to ninth place in college graduation rates because of gains by other countries.
教育部长阿恩·邓肯称，测试结果显示，美国人迫切需要做更多的工作，以保持在世界经济体中的竞争力。他指出，由于其他国家的进步，美国大学毕业率已经从第一掉到第九位。
Mr. Schleicher says international testing experts have investigated and confirmed the Shanghai scores. He says the PISA results are not representative of all of China. But he also says they dispute the common belief that Chinese education is centered on repetition and memorization.
施莱歇尔称，国际测试专家已审核并确认了上海的分数。他称PISA测试结果不代表全中国的水准。但他也表示，他们对中国教育集中于重复和记忆这一普遍观点表示质疑。
Twenty-five percent of the Shanghai students showed advanced thinking skills to solve difficult math problems. The OECD average was three percent.
25%的上海学生在解决高难度数学问题上显示出高超的思维能力，而经合组织的平均水平仅为百分之三。