A survey among foreign exchange students revealed nine out of 10 find U.S. high schools easier and less competitive than their schools back home. The results showed despite efforts from the Department of Education to improve the curriculum, foreign exchange students remained unchallenged and unmotivated in American high schools academically. It's a different matter, however, for demands in sports in schools.
Brookings Institution conducted the Brown Center on Education Policy survey of foreign exchange students in 2001 and then again in 2016. Tom Loveless, the study's head researcher, noted not much changed among the students expectations in the years covered.
In fact, from the students surveyed in 2016, a higher number (91 percent) said they had an easier time in high schools in America compared to those surveyed in 2001 (85 percent). They also didn't have to work too hard for their academic credits.
"You get this feeling - the kids from abroad come here, they spend a year, they think that school is easier here," Loveless said, per Seattle Times. "We think we have made great strides in making our schools more challenging, here is at least one outside group that is in fact saying they are not terribly challenging."
Some 64 percent of foreign exchange students in America, however, found sports requirements more challenging. They said there were a lot more expectations in sports than in academics like math and described these demands as "distressing," as per USA Today.
Author and educator Amanda Ripley said the results of the study, particularly in the emphasis on sports, were not surprising. She understood the importance of high school sports and how it's deeply ingrained in the culture of many U.S. communities.
Loveless said American high school kids see sports as a motivation and reason to go to school and institutions do invest millions of dollars in improving its sports facilities. "The rest of the world, when they hear that, they just think we're insane," he said.
