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The US educational system may be shitty, but I refuse to accept data like this until the standardized tests are actually standardized. ACT and SAT aside, in 3r

by Donzo 12y ago

The US educational system may be shitty, but I refuse to accept data like this until the standardized tests are actually standardized. ACT and SAT aside, in 3rd through 8th grade just about every state gives a different high stakes test. No national body approves these tests, and that's just in America. How the hell can you compare disparate American test data with disparate worldwide test data?

cle 12y ago
If you read the article, you will see that they used the National Assessment of Educational Progress, which is a nationwide standardized test. As for how they can compare the NAEP results with PISA results...well...that's also in the article (http://educationnext.org/files/ednext_XIV_4_peterson_method.jpg http://educationnext.org/files/ednext_XIV_4_peterson_method....).
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rgbrenner 12y ago
Because you didn't read the article. The US and international scores are from PISA tests. This is mentioned in the first sentence of the article. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programme_for_International_Student_Assessment http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programme_for_International_Stu... The state data in the article comes from NAEP... which is a national US test
ylem 12y ago
The article is a bit long, but it actually doesn't do what you claim. It uses one standardized test called PISA (http://www.oecd.org/pisa/ http://www.oecd.org/pisa/) that is given to students around the world. In particular, it looks at math scores. If I were to challenge the results, I would ask 1) Is the test reasonable? 2) How aligned is US education with the test compared to the rest of the world? For example, perhaps in the US students are taught subjects by grade, so may be less familiar with algebra when tested than a student in a country that gradually teaches many subjects. 3) How seriously do the students in a given country take the test? For example, if there are no consequences or questions of national pride, maybe US students simply don't care as much about the test. But, if we assume that the answers to these questions are not enough to explain the differences, the US has a serious problem. There is usually a mythology in the US that if you look at our "best" schools, they are competitive with the rest of the world. What this study does is to look at the results of PISA broken down by the educational achievements of the students' parents (which may also serve as a proxy for wealth). Here, it finds interesting patterns within the US (for example, Texas is one of the best states in the US for students whose parents have a low level of educational attainment, whereas MA is where you want to be if your parents have a high degree of educational attainment)--it also finds that even in the top performing state (MA) that if you look at students whose parents have the highest level of education, they do not compare favorably with the best in the world.

by Donzo 12y ago

cle 12y ago

If you read the article, you will see that they used the National Assessment of Educational Progress, which is a nationwide standardized test. As for how they can compare the NAEP results with PISA results...well...that's also in the article (http://educationnext.org/files/ednext_XIV_4_peterson_method.jpg http://educationnext.org/files/ednext_XIV_4_peterson_method....).

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rgbrenner 12y ago

Because you didn't read the article. The US and international scores are from PISA tests. This is mentioned in the first sentence of the article. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programme_for_International_Student_Assessment http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programme_for_International_Stu... The state data in the article comes from NAEP... which is a national US test

ylem 12y ago

The article is a bit long, but it actually doesn't do what you claim. It uses one standardized test called PISA (http://www.oecd.org/pisa/ http://www.oecd.org/pisa/) that is given to students around the world. In particular, it looks at math scores. If I were to challenge the results, I would ask 1) Is the test reasonable? 2) How aligned is US education with the test compared to the rest of the world? For example, perhaps in the US students are taught subjects by grade, so may be less familiar with algebra when tested than a student in a country that gradually teaches many subjects. 3) How seriously do the students in a given country take the test? For example, if there are no consequences or questions of national pride, maybe US students simply don't care as much about the test. But, if we assume that the answers to these questions are not enough to explain the differences, the US has a serious problem. There is usually a mythology in the US that if you look at our "best" schools, they are competitive with the rest of the world. What this study does is to look at the results of PISA broken down by the educational achievements of the students' parents (which may also serve as a proxy for wealth). Here, it finds interesting patterns within the US (for example, Texas is one of the best states in the US for students whose parents have a low level of educational attainment, whereas MA is where you want to be if your parents have a high degree of educational attainment)--it also finds that even in the top performing state (MA) that if you look at students whose parents have the highest level of education, they do not compare favorably with the best in the world.