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January 24, 2007

Doing the continental

Earler this week, Board Buzz reported on a Washington Post editorial that presented five myths about how U.S. kids stack up against the rest of the world. Little did BB know at the time that its favorite information source — the Center for Public Education — just released a guide to international assessments entitled More than a horse race .

A lot is made about how American education ranks internationally, but what people hear tends to fall into two opposite camps: on one hand, you have the Chicken Littles who cry out that our students are failing and our economic sky is falling; on the other are the Dr. Panglosses who dismiss international comparisons as irrelevant, saying that American schools are somehow different and that this truly is the best of all possible worlds. The Center challenges both views, however, and shows that reality is somewhere in between. For example,

  • If international assessments were a horse race, American students would not win place, or show on any test. But in some areas they come pretty darned close to the money, and do not fail in any subject. U.S. kids actually perform quite well in reading compared to their peers, and achieve around the international average on most math and science tests.
  • U.S. students are improving in some areas, too, notably mathematics. But other countries are improving at the same time. In some subjects, for example, 4th grade science, this meant that our relative ranking fell even though students performed about the same. In contrast, our 8th graders improved both their science scores and their standing.

Although the importance of being number one may be overblown, the Center shows that the information we can get from international tests matters, particularly what we can learn about policies and practices in other countries that may be applied here, for example, how do high-achieving countries organize curriculum, do they provide pre-K, and others. The real prize for the U.S. is making sure all students are well prepared to meet the challenges of the new century.

Check out this and other useful information at www.centerforpubliceducation.org. While visiting, don't forget to sign up for updates.

Posted January 24, 2007 4:47 PM | Students

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