<p>timely, I’m glad your son had that experience. Pretty sobering. I’ve worked in similar, and found it very rewarding. Essentially an orphanage. Those kids expect NOTHING ( maybe that’s why they TAKE it…). VERY different from the kids I see in my private practice… Few thought they would even be ALIVE in 10 years, let alone out of “trouble”.</p>
<p>Okay, causing might not be the right word. How about “S already has a whole new understanding of cultural factors at work in the lives of those at the bottom end of the gap.”</p>
<p>Maybe I can add something to this discussion. </p>
<p>Studies such as PISA are actually very well done. The samples are statistically representative of the participating countries. With the questions translated into various languages, something like 400 thousand students are tested from over 50 countries and it took a team of educators and psychologists 3 years to put the information together.</p>
<p>Older international studies were not as well done. The Second International Mathematics Study (SIMS) and the IAEP study of science conducted in the 1980s, for example, tested 18 yr olds, giving an edge to countries with a smaller %tage of students staying in school after age 16. Some countries were also “cheating”, sending only their best students and not a random selection of students to the testing. ( An old friend told me he can remember such a sendoff, with examinees given a standing ovation by their classmates on their departure).</p>
<p>These problems are eliminated by testing students before streaming begins (around 17 in many jurisdictions) and slap on tighter control of sample selection. The results I saw from PISA (06) is not that different from the other versions done in recent years.</p>
<p>The gap is not only in the traditional academic classes.
[Education</a> Week’s Digital Directions: Global Competition: U.S. Students vs. International Peers](<a href=“http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2009/06/17/04global.h02.html]Education”>Global Competition: U.S. Students vs. International Peers)
Global Competition: U.S. Students vs. International Peers
Are U.S. students’ tech skills keeping up with their international peers?</p>
<p>We have cultural and demographic challenges we must address. </p>
<p>If blacks and Hispanics had academic performance levels of whites (never mind Asians here in the US), the U.S. would lead all industrialized nations in reading and would lead Europe in math and science. </p>
<p>Pretty politically incorrect, huh? Not sure viewing this in racial terms is the best way to view it, but there are cultural problems - particularly that relate to how children are raised and education is valued, that are real problems in these communities. Moynihan pointed this out over 40 years ago, and turns out he was right (hardly a conservative). And the gaps correlate with income, but only to a degree. Even reasonably well off members of these groups perform at the level of the poverty stricken in other groups. Economic reasons alone don’t cut it. </p>
<p>See this study from UPenn: </p>
<p>Note the demographic trends will only make this problem worse. There will be fewer well educated people paying, in essence, for those that are less productive in a global knowledge based economy. Not a nice thing for our future. </p>
<p>By the way, this is not intended to blame anyone or any group. But we do need people to wake up to the cultural barriers that are driving the gaps. I can’t wait for Obama to address this head on.</p>
<p>I don’t know how this translates to the national stage but my experience with public HS has been that there is a push to bring students at the bottom levels up. Our schools have been successful with this at least as results are reflected on TAKS tests. (Texas’ standardized testing tool). Our schools have definitely not achieve equality on the achievements of minority students but they have shown consistent improvements. (I have only noticed scores broken down along racial lines and not socioeconomically). There are however so many socioleconomic variables among the low achieving students it seems that to achieve real college readiness the education system needs to stretch beyond curriculum parameters to make a real change. On the other hand high achieving students often seem to be an after thought with the general attitude being that these students will take care of themselves. Very few of our students become NMSF’s and very few go on to top schools and it seems that our adminstration is not worried about this. It seems that a lot of work is needed at both ends of the spectrum.</p>
<p>
That is a truly sobering observation. What’s really frustrating is that no one seems to be doing anything about it. They’re all (state and national officials) content to ignore developing high potential to pursue very minor gains among those who struggle. That’s a noble intention, but as the number of those who earn enough to contribute adequately to the government’s social service programs through income taxes, etc., declines, we risk social strife on a fairly large scale.</p>
<p>JiffsMom - I agree, I am concerned. Charles Murray’s observation that our government social programs are designed to create greater numbers of people that cannot properly care for their children and inculcate educational and moral values has always scared me as being fascist. </p>
<p>But the data year after year makes his observations look trenchant. Many on the left have lots of vitriol towards these observations as they think they are blaming the victim. But I am no longer persuaded. The problems are so manifest that the cultural barriers must be discussed.</p>
<p>I don’t know much about the different kinds of tests. What do you think of the TIMSS test? There was a little bit of press here in MN because our students had done relatively well. Both Minnesota and Massachusetts had decided to be considered their own nations for the test results.
[SciMathMN</a> - TIMSS; MN Eighth Grade Summary](<a href=“http://www.scimathmn.org/timss/timss1995/timss8.htm]SciMathMN”>http://www.scimathmn.org/timss/timss1995/timss8.htm)</p>
<p>I scanned through the short results digest and thought a couple of things were interesting. The report said that Minnesota kids did better on the sciences than other states mostly because of how our curriculum is staged. All 8th graders take earth sciences which accounted for the higher score. The report also acknowledged that our standard of 8th grade math is 7th grade math for much of the world. The math sections that we scored lowest in were geometry and measurement as a result of our schools favoring arithmetic.
[Minnesota</a> TIMSS Report: Figure 3](<a href=“http://www.scimathmn.org/timss/timss1995/timtab3.htm]Minnesota”>http://www.scimathmn.org/timss/timss1995/timtab3.htm)</p>
<p>How much of the testing discrepancies between the US and other countries is derived from curriculum differences? How does one decide that one kind of math to focus on is better than another?</p>
<p>I just checked another table. Minnesota kids were 2nd behind Singapore in earth sciences and environmental science:
[Minnesota</a> TIMSS Report: Figure 3](<a href=“http://www.scimathmn.org/timss/timss1995/timtab3.htm]Minnesota”>http://www.scimathmn.org/timss/timss1995/timtab3.htm)</p>
<p>“…all of the children are above average” - Garrison Keillor</p>
<p>TIMSS is a project of the IEA designed to contrast and compare the teaching and learning of science and math around the world. As far as I know, 3 rounds of data collection has been completed, with the last one in 2003. It was co-ordinated by Boston college and were designed with each participating country’s curriculum and majority language in mind. Like PISA, it too is extremely well done.</p>
<p>What I find odd is that Finland, which performed superbly in PISA, did not participate in TIMSS, while Singapore, whose students are the best in TIMSS, did not take part in PISA.</p>
<p>EDIT: A new round has apparently just been completed for 2007:</p>
<p>[BBC</a> NEWS | UK | Education | England’s pupils in global top 10](<a href=“http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/7773081.stm]BBC”>BBC NEWS | UK | Education | England's pupils in global top 10)</p>