assess the extent to which students near the end of compulsory education have acquired some of the knowledge and skills that are essential for full participation in modern societies (PISA Results, Volume I, p. 19)In addition to the 34 OECD member nations, a further 31 "partner countries" take part. Some of these partners, such as Shanghai, were among the top performers, despite lower education budgets than in the OECD and wide socioeconomic disparities within them. In fact, Shanghai topped the list in all three categories (see below).
The U.S. scores on the high end of average in reading and science, and just below average in math. As the table below shows, America scores better than a few countries often thought of as more "socially advanced," such as Sweden. Though there is obviously room for improvement (and the PISA report discusses improved scores in countries as diverse as South Korea, Poland, Germany, and Brazil), the sky is not falling on U.S. education just yet.
In future posts, I plan to take up more education-related issues. Here, I wanted to show that the U.S. is not starting from as bad a baseline as it does, for example, in health care. Without further ado, here are the PISA scores for the top 50 countries:
| Country | Reading | Math | Science | |
| Shanghai-China | 556 | 600 | 575 | |
| Korea | 539 | 546 | 538 | |
| Finland | 536 | 541 | 554 | |
| Hong Kong-China | 533 | 555 | 549 | |
| Singapore | 526 | 562 | 542 | |
| Canada | 524 | 527 | 529 | |
| New Zealand | 521 | 519 | 532 | |
| Japan | 520 | 529 | 539 | |
| Australia | 515 | 514 | 527 | |
| Netherlands | 508 | 526 | 522 | |
| Belgium | 506 | 515 | 507 | |
| Norway | 503 | 498 | 500 | |
| Estonia | 501 | 512 | 528 | |
| Switzerland | 501 | 534 | 517 | |
| Poland | 500 | 495 | 508 | |
| Iceland | 500 | 507 | 496 | |
| United States | 500 | 487 | 502 | |
| Liechtenstein | 499 | 536 | 520 | |
| Sweden | 497 | 494 | 495 | |
| Germany | 497 | 513 | 520 | |
| Ireland | 496 | 487 | 508 | |
| France | 496 | 497 | 498 | |
| Chinese Taipei | 495 | 543 | 520 | |
| Denmark | 495 | 503 | 499 | |
| United Kingdom | 494 | 492 | 514 | |
| Hungary | 494 | 490 | 503 | |
| Portugal | 489 | 487 | 493 | |
| Macao-China | 487 | 525 | 511 | |
| Italy | 486 | 483 | 489 | |
| Latvia | 484 | 482 | 494 | |
| Slovenia | 483 | 501 | 512 | |
| Greece | 483 | 466 | 470 | |
| Spain | 481 | 483 | 488 | |
| Czech Republic | 478 | 493 | 500 | |
| Slovak Republic | 477 | 497 | 490 | |
| Croatia | 476 | 460 | 486 | |
| Israel | 474 | 447 | 455 | |
| Luxembourg | 472 | 489 | 484 | |
| Austria | 470 | 496 | 494 | |
| Lithuania | 468 | 477 | 491 | |
| Turkey | 464 | 445 | 454 | |
| Dubai (UAE) | 459 | 453 | 466 | |
| Russian Federation | 459 | 468 | 478 | |
| Chile | 449 | 421 | 447 | |
| Serbia | 442 | 442 | 443 | |
| Bulgaria | 429 | 428 | 439 | |
| Uruguay | 426 | 427 | 427 | |
| Mexico | 425 | 419 | 416 | |
| Romania | 424 | 427 | 428 | |
| Thailand | 421 | 419 | 425 | |
| Source: OECD, PISA 2009 Database | ||||
| http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/888932343342 |
Unclear why this is in any way constructive given that the US spends far more on education than any other nation per pupil, much as it spends far more on health care per person.
ReplyDeleteEqually the PISA methodology is difficult to reconcile with statistically significant behavior differences especially in reading comprehension. If the tests are in fact in the native language, the composition of reading tests is a huge issue, one which likely affects the science category as well (math being relatively immune).
Equally so the choice of testees is another item of huge methodological significance. Countries which restrict education at the higher levels would clearly be selecting for better students than countries with compulsory education at those same levels.
I'd strongly suggest looking more closely through the details of PISA before making any sweeping judgements.
I thought China was a whole country not one industrialized city.
ReplyDeleteNotice Hong Kong and Shanghai are cities, not countries. I'm sure the researchers had good reason for singling out these two cities but not others. But I'm too dumb and lazy to guess. Can someone tell me why.
ReplyDeleteChina is, of course, an entire country. Hong Kong has only been part of the PRC since 1997 and remains a special administrative zone. I think the simple answer to why only Shanghai and Hong Kong were tested is because it would overwhelm China's administrative resources to try to test in the vast, and vastly, poorer parts of the country. But remember, Shanghai and Hong Kong have populations that exceed those of the smaller OECD countries.
ReplyDeleteI'd certainly be interested in seeing citations on critiques of the PISA methodology. Looking at the table, though, it seems that the math scores are pretty highly correlated with reading and science, so I'm not sure how much force there is to your comments about the composition of reading tests. I look forward to more suggestions on these points.
How are testees selected? Are they ONLY public school students or both public and private? Is this true in ALL countries? Why are the states of the USA not looked at as individual states as well as part of a nation?
ReplyDeleteMany questions regarding validity and reliability of this test.