US student performance average at best

2013

You may have missed this story, it wasn’t the topic of any major speech lately. While the President talks about raising and indexing the minimum wage which affects a tiny portion of Americans (mostly young part-timers) as a way to close the income gap and reduce “inequality,” once again progressives look to solve a perceived problem from the top down.

Below is the real problem we should worry about, a poor education guarantees lower-income, and a lower chance for upward mobility. And mediocre performance means mediocre results on the world stage.

We can point fingers in many directions looking for the causes of our performance; teachers and their unions, government policy, parents, dysfunctional families, perhaps even our obsession with sports over academics. Whatever the answer, is there any good reason (certainly not what we spend per student) why U.S. students should not be consistently at or near the top? We are in a new, more competitive world, this is nothing to take lightly.

From the Washington Post:

Here are highlights of the newly released 2012 scores from the Program of International Student Assessment, an exam given every three years to 15 year olds around the world in reading, math and science. In this administration of PISA, 65 countries and education systems participated. Connecticut, Florida, and Massachusetts each participated for the first time as international benchmarking systems and received separate scores.

These results are part of a release on the PISA results from the U.S. National Center for Education Statistics.
 Average scores in mathematics literacy ranged from 613 in Shanghai-China to 368 in Peru. The U.S. average score was 481, which was lower than the OECD average of 494. The U.S. average was lower than 29 education systems, higher than 26 education systems, and not measurably different than 9 education systems.

• The U.S. mathematics literacy average score in 2012 was not measurably different than any earlier comparable time point (2003, 2006 and 2009). There was no measurable change in average mathematics literacy scores in 33 of the 62 education systems, including the United States, that participated in PISA in 2009 and 2012, but 18 education systems’ average scores increased between 2012 and 2009.
• Percentages of top performing 15-year-old students (those scoring at PISA proficiency level 5 or above) in mathematics literacy ranged from 55 percent in Shanghai-China to nearly 0 percent in Colombia and Argentina. In the United States, 9 percent of 15-year-old students scored at proficiency level 5 or above, which was lower than the OECD average of 13 percent. The U.S. percentage was lower than 27 education systems, higher than 22 education systems, and not measurably different than 13 education systems.
• Average scores in science literacy ranged from 580 in Shanghai-China to 373 in Peru. The U.S. average science literacy score was 497. This was not different from the OECD average of 501. This was lower than the average in 22 education systems. The U.S. average was higher than 29 education systems and was not measurably different than 13 education systems.
• The U.S. science literacy average score in 2012 was not measurably different than either earlier comparable time point (2006 and 2009). There was no measurable change in average science literacy scores in 43 of the 62 education systems, including the United States, that participated in PISA in 2009 and 2012, but 13 education systems’ average scores increased between 2009 and 2012.
• Percentages of top-performing 15-year-old students (those scoring at PISA proficiency level 5 or above) in science literacy ranged from 27 percent in Shanghai-China and 23 percent in Singapore to nearly 0 percent in eight education systems. In the United States, 7 percent of 15-year-old students scored at proficiency level 5 or above, which was not measurably different from the OECD average of 8 percent. The U.S. percentage was lower than 17 education systems, higher than 27 education systems, and not measurably different than 15 education systems.
• Average scores in reading literacy ranged from 570 in Shanghai-China to 384 in Peru. The U.S. average score was 498, which was not measurably different from the OECD average of 496. The U.S. average was lower than 19 education systems, higher than 34 education systems, and not measurably different than 11 education systems.
• The U.S. reading literacy average score in 2012 was not measurably different than any earlier comparable time point (2000, 2003, and 2009). There was no measurable change in average reading literacy scores in 34 of the 62 education systems, including the United States, that participated in PISA in 2009 and 2012, but 21 education systems’ average scores increased between 2009 and 2012.
• Percentages of top performing 15-year-old students (those scoring at PISA proficiency level 5 or above) in reading literacy ranged from 25 percent in Shanghai-China and 21 percent in Singapore to nearly 0 percent in 3 education systems. In the United States, 8 percent of U.S. 15-year-old students scored at proficiency level 5 or above, which was not measurably different from the OECD average of 8 percent. The U.S. percentage was lower than 14 education systems, higher than 33 education systems, and not measurably different than 12 education systems.

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• U.S. students fall further behind internationally (examiner.com)