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I don't doubt that some of the Asian countries only test the top rank but the European countries at least test everyone (well a sampling of everyone, but still, they're not just testing the top performers) so that argument falls flat. Clearly other countries are doing better at lessening the achievement gap between low and top performers, and poorer students and richer students but I would agree that it is harder for the US to do because of its nature - its inequality level is so much higher than most other Western countries so it stands to reason that the gap would be larger.
To close the education achievement gap you'd need to close the inequality gap but to close that you first need to close the education gap...and so on and so forth. Good luck with that...
Ireland moved up from #33 to #20 and here's their country's comments:
Quinn welcomes Pisa results - Education News | Primary, Secondary & Third Level | The Irish Time - Tue, Dec 03, 2013
There has been a welcome for Ireland’s positive performance in the triennial Pisa education survey which shows strong improvement against international competition. There has been a welcome for Ireland’s positive performance in the triennial Pisa education survey which shows strong improvement against international competition.
..
He expressed his delight in the strong performance. “However, we cannot be complacent. While we are doing well, we are not among the top performers internationally, especially in relation to mathematics, where our students are scoring just above the OECD average,” he said.
Good progress had been made in bringing up the standards of lower achieving students, but our higher achieving students are underperforming relative to similar students in other countries, Mr Quinn said.
no -- correct me if i'm wrong, but i think he's saying that
(A) China is cheating (or, rather, gaming the system)
and
(B) You can't blame America's educational system(s) for the low-scoring immigrant/minority underclass.
We'd be worse than #36 if they didn't pick Massachusetts for the test.
MA has the best education system in the US.
How many low scoring immigrant/minorities live in Massachusetts ?
I don't doubt that some of the Asian countries only test the top rank but the European countries at least test everyone (well a sampling of everyone, but still, they're not just testing the top performers) so that argument falls flat.
what argument?
the country that's being accused of flawed testing is china, not finland or canada
finland and canada are being accused of (historical) immigration that keeps them homogenous, educated, and white, unlike america.
I don't doubt that some of the Asian countries only test the top rank but the European countries at least test everyone (well a sampling of everyone, but still, they're not just testing the top performers) so that argument falls flat. Clearly other countries are doing better at lessening the achievement gap between low and top performers, and poorer students and richer students but I would agree that it is harder for the US to do because of its nature - its inequality level is so much higher than most other Western countries so it stands to reason that the gap would be larger.
To close the education achievement gap you'd need to close the inequality gap but to close that you first need to close the education gap...and so on and so forth. Good luck with that...
A lot of countries test the students and put them on academic or vocational tracks.
We don't do that in the US..they are all on academic college ready tracks.
Finland, for example provides a basic education for all until 15 and then it's either vocational or academic.
It's not that they are cheating and picking their smartest kids.
They TRACK and have already separated out the non college kids and put them in vocational tracks.
What you have left on the academic side is basically college prep.
We don't operate that way. We say everyone will be educated and college ready.
So we just keep fooling ourselves and making excuses because the numbers don't back up our education mantra.
We'd be worse than #36 if they didn't pick Massachusetts for the test.
MA has the best education system in the US.
How many low scoring immigrant/minorities live in Massachusetts ?
all states in the U.S. were tested, not just Massachusetts.
Are you implying that the 35 countries ahead of us cheated and we're really #1 ?
No. Neither I nor anyone else has any idea of what our ranking really is or if it is increasing or decreasing because there is no standardization with regards to the body of students being tested.
Are you implying that the test scores out of some of those countries are not politically manufactured? I mean we even have cheating scandals and pupil exclusion scandals here in the US like the ones in Atlanta and Texas.
The US education system needs work and I'm surely no fan of the NCLB crap aimed at dragging everyone to mediocrity....but pointing to this study as some sort of damning proof is utter garbage.
PISA hires a third party to do the sampling in the countries.
The third party provides a list of schools.
Each country contacts that school and asks if they want to participate.
Each country submits a list of students who will test.
The third party validates each student.
the country that's being accused of flawed testing is china, not finland or canada
finland and canada are being accused of (historical) immigration that keeps them homogenous, educated, and white, unlike america.
China and several other (unnamed) countries were accused of flawed testing.
The homogeneous argument isn't a very satisfactory argument (although I am sure it has a large influence) because other homogeneous nations don't do as well, and Finland itself didn't have a very good education system in the past - it was its reforms that made its system good, not the nature of its population.
all states in the U.S. were tested, not just Massachusetts.
161 schools scattered across the US.
A total of 6111 students.
Yes I know it was not just MA.
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