In a survey from the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), it was revealed that Chinese students are easily outperforming their peers around the world. For anyone familiar with the "Tiger Mother" parenting style of Amy Chua, this is certainly not a surprise. It is a disappointment for American students, however, who no doubt would like to be superior as well. But the fact remains that the Chinese are simply outperforming the rest of the world, and it has little to do with natural ability or even luck, but rather, smart choices made in the educational culture in China. Read on, and we'll take a look at 10 things that China is doing that make a difference in their educational performance, as well as consider how these ideas might be applied to American education.

Education is a top priority One of the biggest things American schools can learn from Chinese education is that learning is simply one of the most important things in China. The entire country has a drive to do better and learn more, motivated to continue to grow as a superpower, and pushing each new generation to become smarter, more productive, and more innovative than the last. And while the American government pays lip service to education at the federal, state, and national level, China actually makes education one of its top priorities. According to the New York Times, there is a "Confucian reverence for education that is steeped into the culture," where teachers are highly respected, and class clowns and jocks play second fiddle to the smartest kid in the class. There is a real passion for learning in the Chinese education system, in stark contrast to American schools which often get caught up in teaching to the next goal, typically for standardized tests. The Chinese model of celebrated education is one that's hard to quantify, but US schools can take a lesson from an education system that makes it cool to be the smart kid.

China is cutting out college majors that don't pay Both the US and China are having a problem with jobless graduates, but China is doing something serious to stop it: the Ministry of Education recently announced that they would phase out majors that produce unemployable graduates. The government will systematically evaluate college majors by their employment rates, and subsequently downsize or completely cut out studies that produce employment rates below 60% for two consecutive years. Although some laud the idea as an efficient way to produce college graduates who will become employable and productive, many university professors are not happy with the idea, as they worry that the downsizing may cut out subjects, like biology, that are not currently strong in the market, but nonetheless necessary to China's mission for leadership in science and technology. But this is not a new idea, anyway: according to the Wall Street Journal, universities have been downsizing programs that don't result in paid positions, with China's Shenyang Normal University cutting its Russian program from 50 to 25. If the US government followed the Chinese approach, majors that would be cut include psychology, US history, and military technologies.

Teachers are retrained before being dismissed Teacher turnover is expensive and disruptive, plain and simple. In a study from the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future, it was revealed that for each teacher turnover, schools lose about $9,500 in costs, including training, administrative processing, and recruitment. That's a significant number for each teacher that is fired or walks out the door due to dissatisfaction. But perhaps worse than the financial impact of teacher turnover is the educational fallout as teachers are first ineffective, and then not there at all. Students are further inconvenienced as a new teacher is hired and brought up to speed, while weeks of curriculum may fall by the wayside. Rather than allow students and educational budgets to suffer from the dismissal of poorly performing teachers, Chinese administrators choose to retrain existing teachers, working to improve their skills and abilities so that they may remain in their position while doing a significantly better job. Certainly not all "bad" teachers can benefit from training instead of dismissal, and some must eventually be fired, but by offering teachers the opportunity and resources to create improvement, China saves not just money, but the time and attention of the students served by challenged teachers.

Education spending is growing The US spends more per GDP on education than China, with 5.7% GDP to China's 2.5%. Still, critics believe that China has learned how to spend its small budget wisely, pointing out that while previously, China did not have the bureaucracy to ensure money was spent correctly, the country has now shifted delivery of social services to the county level where personnel are better trained. And as the country as a whole better learns how to spend its meager education budget, that budget is also growing: Chinese education spending has grown by 20% every year since 1999, now reaching more than $100 billion. Meanwhile, education spending in the US has grown at a much slower pace: in recent years, spending has risen by a meager 5.8%. This indicates that while the US remains stagnant in its education growth, China is and has been making a great effort to push for more education funding and better schools.