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U.S. students lag around average on international science, math and reading test
By Lyndsey Layton, The Washington Post, http://wapo.st/1eSHK2q
December 2 | Updated: Tuesday, December 3, 2:00 AM :: Scores in math, reading and science posted by 15-year-olds in the United States were flat while their counterparts elsewhere — particularly in Shanghai, Singapore and other Asian provinces or countries — soared ahead, according to results of a well-regarded international exam released Tuesday.
While U.S. teenagers scored slightly above average in reading, their scores were average in science and below average in math, compared to 64 other countries and economies that participated in the 2012 Program for International Student Assessment, or PISA, which was administered last fall. That pattern has not changed much since PISA was first administered in 2000.
“Our scores are stagnant. We’re not seeing any improvement for our 15-year-olds,” said Jack Buckley, commissioner at the National Center for Education Statistics, the research arm of the U.S. Department of Education. “But our ranking is flipping because a lot of these other countries are improving.”
The test scores offer fresh evidence for those who argue that the United States is losing ground to competitors in the global market and others who say a decade’s worth of school reform has done little to improve educational outcomes.
“While the intentions may have been good, a decade of top-down, test-based schooling created by No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top — focused on hyper-testing students, sanctioning teachers and closing schools — has failed to improve the quality of American public education,” Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said in a statement. The AFT released a video on Monday in which it implored the public not to blame teachers, the unions, parents or students for poor PISA results.
Graphic: How U.S. students compare internationally
The students from the United States posted mostly average scores compared to a selection of top performers from the 2012 Program for International Student Assessment, a study comparing math, reading and science proficiency of 15-year-olds from 65 countries and economies.
Sources: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (2013), PISA 2012 Results: What Students Know and Can Do = Student Performance in Mathematics, Reading and Science (Volume I), PISA, OECD Publishing.. Cristina Rivero/The Washington Post. Published on December 3, 2013, 5:00 a.m.
Shanghai dominated the exam, occupying the top slot in all three subjects. The Chinese province has catapulted to the top in PISA over the past decade after focusing on teacher preparation and investing in its most challenging classrooms, among other things.
Germany, Poland and Vietnam were among several countries that made significant improvements in their test scores while Finland, which had been a top-scorer in the past several exams, dropped from its elite perch.
“Finland is still a strong performing educational system that’s seen a drop,” Andreas Schleicher, deputy director for education and skills at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, said during a briefing with reporters Monday. “I’m not yet able to explain it.”
The test, administered every three years by the OECD, measures performance on math, reading and science. PISA is designed to test whether students can apply what they’ve learned in school to real-life problems. Approximately 510,000 15-year-olds in public and private schools took the paper-and-pencil exam in 2012.
On the math portion, 28 countries tested better than the United States. Aside from the Asia powerhouses of Shanghai, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taipei, Korea, Japan, the United States was outscored by a string of European countries including Latvia, the United Kingdom, Poland, France, Germany and Slovenia.
In science, 22 countries posted better results than the United States, including Vietnam, Canada and Poland. In reading, 19 countries had higher scores than U.S. students, including Estonia and Liechtenstein.
Three states — Massachusetts, Connecticut and Florida — participated in the test and were ranked as if they were individual countries to see how their students compared internationally.
Students in Massachusetts and Connecticut scored above both the national and PISA average in math, while Florida scored below those averages. The same pattern repeated in science testing. In reading, Massachusetts and Connecticut scored above the U.S. and PISA averages while Florida teenagers scored about the same as the U.S. and PISA average.
Not only did the United States score below average compared to the other countries that took the PISA math exam, it had fewer top performers. These are students who can develop “models for complex situations, and work strategically using broad, well developed thinking and reasoning skills,” according to a report on the PISA results from the OECD. While just 2 percent of U.S. teenagers reached that level in math, 31 percent reached that level in Shanghai. The OECD average was 3 percent.
“I was surprised by that,” Schleicher said.
Even in Massachusetts, which leads the country in math performance, 19 percent of students who took the PISA exam placed in the top two levels of proficiency while 55 percent of students in Shanghai reached those top tiers. Compared to Massachusetts, students in Shanghai were scoring at a level that was equivalent to more than two additional years of formal schooling, the OECD said.
At the other end of the spectrum, about 25 percent of U.S. students tested in the lowest levels of math proficiency — more than the OECD average. That statistic has not changed since 2003.
U.S. students are particularly weak in performing math tasks with higher cognitive demands, such as taking real-world situations and translating them into mathematical terms, according to the OECD report.
Some observers say the United States does not perform well in international competitions because it is a large, diverse country, with the highest child poverty rate among industrialized countries.
But countries like Vietnam, where 79 percent of students are economically disadvantaged, outscored U.S. students in math.
“So it’s not demography itself. Those demographics are a factor, not the only factor,” Buckley said.
A weak curriculum could be the culprit, the report suggested.
“Perhaps the application problems that most students encounter today are the worst of all worlds: fake applications that strive to make the mathematics curriculum more palatable, yet do no justice either to modeling or to the pure mathematics involved,” the OECD report said. Providing students with better opportunities to learn will help them develop the skills to make frequent and productive use of math in their work and daily life, it said.
The new Common Core academic standards in math and reading, which have been fully adopted by 45 states and the District of Columbia, could go a long way to pulling up the nation’s PISA scores, according to the OECD. While the standards are now being implemented in most U.S. classrooms, there has been growing political opposition from the right, left and center.
Starting this spring, any U.S. high school will be able to participate in a new test that is comparable to PISA and will allow schools to compare themselves to the participating PISA countries. Jon Schnur, executive chairman of America Achieves, which has worked with the OECD to develop the test, said 150 high schools — including 51 in Virginia and Maryland — have registered to participate. A handful of schools participated in a pilot test last year and used the results to make changes to curriculum and instruction, Schnur said.
“More important than the horse race of the rankings is what can we learn from these tests,” Schnur said.
Dennis Van Roekel, president of the National Education Association, said the country should stop divisive debates about reform policies, figure out what is working in top-scoring nations and adopt their strategies.
“The number one thing is commitment,” Van Roekel said. “We need to say we know what works, take it out of the political arena and do what’s right for kids.”
Germany, shocked by its moderate PISA results in 2000, has adopted national education standards and taken steps to improve teacher education and establish a common test for final high school exams in all 16 German states. Germany’s scores have improved in math, reading and science.
Education Secretary Arne Duncan said in a statement that the United States must “invest in early education, raise academic standards, make college affordable, and do more to recruit and retain top-notch educators. By taking those vital steps, we will ensure all of America’s children have access to a high-quality education that prepares them for college and careers.”
Buckley cautioned against using the PISA results to draw conclusions about whether education policies are working.
“People like to take international results like this and focus on high performers and pick out areas of policy that support the policies that they support,” he said. “I never expect tests like these to tell us what works in education. That’s like taking a thermometer to explain why it’s cold outside.”
Key PISA test results for U.S. students
By Valerie Strauss Washington Post/The Answer Sheet | http://wapo.st/1hvFguj
December 3 at 5:15 am :: Here are highlights of the newly released 2012 scores from the Program of International Student Assessment, an exam given every three years to 15 year olds around the world in reading, math and science. In this administration of PISA, 65 countries and education systems participated. Connecticut, Florida, and Massachusetts each participated for the first time as international benchmarking systems and received separate scores.
These results are part of a release on the PISA results from the U.S. National Center for Education Statistics.
Key findings:
MATHEMATICS LITERACY:
- Average scores in mathematics literacy ranged from 613 in Shanghai-China to 368 in Peru. The U.S. average score was 481, which was lower than the OECD average of 494. The U.S. average was lower than 29 education systems, higher than 26 education systems, and not measurably different than 9 education systems.
- Massachusetts and Connecticut mathematics literacy average scores were 514 and 506, respectively. Massachusetts’ average was higher than the OECD and U.S. averages and Connecticut’s was higher than the U.S. average but not measurably different than the OECD average. Florida’s average score (467) was lower than the OECD and U.S. averages.
- The U.S. mathematics literacy average score in 2012 was not measurably different than any earlier comparable time point (2003, 2006 and 2009). There was no measurable change in average mathematics literacy scores in 33 of the 62 education systems, including the United States, that participated in PISA in 2009 and 2012, but 18 education systems’ average scores increased between 2012 and 2009. Percentages of top performing 15-year-old students (those scoring at PISA proficiency level 5 or above) in mathematics literacy ranged from 55 percent in Shanghai-China to nearly 0 percent in Colombia and Argentina. In the United States, 9 percent of 15-year-old students scored at proficiency level 5 or above, which was lower than the OECD average of 13 percent. The U.S. percentage was lower than 27 education systems, higher than 22 education systems, and not measurably different than 13 education systems.
- The percentage of 15-year-old students performing below PISA proficiency level 2, which is considered a baseline of proficiency by the OECD, ranged from 4 percent in Shanghai-China to 76 percent in Indonesia. In the United States, 26 percent of 15-year-old students scored below level 2, which was higher than the OECD average of 23 percent. The U.S. percentage was higher than 29 education systems, lower than 26 education systems, and not measurably different than 9 education systems.
- In Massachusetts and Connecticut, 19 and 16 percent of students, respectively, were top performers in mathematics, scoring at PISA proficiency level 5 or above and 18 and 21 percent, respectively, scored below level 2. In Florida, 6 percent of student scored at level 5 or above and 30 percent scored below level 2.
SCIENCE LITERACY:
- Average scores in science literacy ranged from 580 in Shanghai-China to 373 in Peru. The U.S. average science literacy score was 497. This was not different from the OECD average of 501. This was lower than the average in 22 education systems. The U.S. average was higher than 29 education systems and was not measurably different than 13 education systems.
- Massachusetts and Connecticut science literacy average scores, 527 and 521, respectively, were higher than the OECD and U.S. averages. Florida’s average score (485) was lower than the OECD average and not measurably different than the U.S. average.
- The U.S. science literacy average score in 2012 was not measurably different than either earlier comparable time point (2006 and 2009). There was no measurable change in average science literacy scores in 43 of the 62 education systems, including the United States, that participated in PISA in 2009 and 2012, but 13 education systems’ average scores increased between 2009 and 2012.
- Percentages of top-performing 15-year-old students (those scoring at PISA proficiency level 5 or above) in science literacy ranged from 27 percent in Shanghai-China and 23 percent in Singapore to nearly 0 percent in eight education systems. In the United States, 7 percent of 15-year-old students scored at proficiency level 5 or above, which was not measurably different from the OECD average of 8 percent. The U.S. percentage was lower than 17 education systems, higher than 27 education systems, and not measurably different than 15 education systems.
- In science literacy, the percentage of 15-year-old students performing below PISA proficiency level 2, which is considered a baseline of proficiency by the OECD, ranged from 3 percent in Shanghai-China and 5 percent in Estonia to 67 percent in Indonesia and 68 percent in Peru. In the United States, 18 percent of U.S. 15-year-old students scored below level 2, which was not measurably different from the OECD average of 18 percent. The U.S. percentage was higher than 21 education systems, lower than 29 education systems, and not measurably different than 14 education systems.
- In Massachusetts and Connecticut, 14 and 13 percent of students, respectively, were top performers in science, scoring at PISA proficiency level 5 or above and 11 and 13 percent, respectively, scored below level 2. In Florida, 5 percent of student scored at level 5 or above and 21 percent scored below level 2.
READING LITERACY:
- Average scores in reading literacy ranged from 570 in Shanghai-China to 384 in Peru. The U.S. average score was 498, which was not measurably different from the OECD average of 496. The U.S. average was lower than 19 education systems, higher than 34 education systems, and not measurably different than 11 education systems.
- Massachusetts and Connecticut reading literacy average scores, 527 and 521, respectively, were higher than the OECD and U.S. averages. Massachusetts was outperformed by only three education systems, and Connecticut by four. Florida’s average score (492) was not measurably different than the OECD or U.S. averages.
- The U.S. reading literacy average score in 2012 was not measurably different than any earlier comparable time point (2000, 2003, and 2009). There was no measurable change in average reading literacy scores in 34 of the 62 education systems, including the United States, that participated in PISA in 2009 and 2012, but 21 education systems’ average scores increased between 2009 and 2012.
- Percentages of top performing 15-year-old students (those scoring at PISA proficiency level 5 or above) in reading literacy ranged from 25 percent in Shanghai-China and 21 percent in Singapore to nearly 0 percent in 3 education systems. In the United States, 8 percent of U.S. 15-year-old students scored at proficiency level 5 or above, which was not measurably different from the OECD average of 8 percent. The U.S. percentage was lower than 14 education systems, higher than 33 education systems, and not measurably different than 12 education systems.
- In reading literacy, the percentage of 15-year-old students performing below PISA proficiency level 2, which is considered a baseline of proficiency by the OECD, ranged from 3 percent in Shanghai-China to 60 percent in Peru. In the United States, 17 percent of U.S. 15-year-old students scored below level 2, which was not measurably different from the OECD average of 18 percent. The U.S. percentage was higher than 14 education systems, lower than 33 education systems, and not measurably different than 17 education systems.
- In Massachusetts and Connecticut, 16 and 15 percent of students, respectively, were top performers in science, scoring at PISA proficiency level 5 or above and 11 and 13 percent, respectively, scored below level 2. In Florida, 6 percent of student scored at level 5 or above and 17 percent scored below level 2.
Performance of U.S. 15-Year-Old Students in Mathematics, Science, and Reading Literacy in an International... by 4LAKids
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