Blog @ MoreWhat.com

One can get lost in the plethora of research details, explanations,
footnotes, bibliographies and myriad other distracting reference
materials associated with all subject matter displayed or otherwise
available at ed.gov and other internet locations that provide some
coverage of the state of education.

Without getting into a full-blown thesis flavored presentation or
debate on the state of education, we believe the two items offered
in this post provide a reasonable summary of learning in the U.S.
For those pursuing the shameless pandering for more funding in
education, we humbly request you remove your “it’s only for the
children” rhetoric and hold those in charge accountable to the
taxpayers and the students for the embarrassing performance of
the educational systems in this country.

Let us not forget that parents and students share in the overall
responsibility of education. Their involvement in the financial
process may be limited but apathy or ineffective parenting is
equally damaging and responsible for academic performance.

Question:
How does achievement of American students
compare to students in other countries? Response:
The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) is a system of international assessments that measures 15-year-olds’ capabilities in reading, mathematics, and science every 3 years. PISA was first implemented in 2000 and is carried out by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), an intergovernmental organization of industrialized countries.The U.S. average score in reading literacy was not measurably different from the OECD average in 2000 or 2003, nor was there any measurable change in the U.S. reading literacy score from 2000 to 2003. The U.S. average score was below the OECD average science literacy score in 2003. There was no measurable change in the U.S. science literacy score from 2000 to 2003. In 2003, U.S. performance in mathematics literacy and problem solving was lower than the average performance for most OECD countries. The United States also performed below the OECD average on each mathematics literacy subscale representing a specific content area (space and shape, change and relationships, quantity, and uncertainty). There were no measurable changes in the U.S. scores from 2000 to 2003 on either the space and shape subscale or the change and relationships subscale, the only content areas for which trend data from 2000 to 2003 are available. In both 2000 and 2003, about two-thirds of the other participating OECD countries outperformed the United States in these content areas. In 2003, males outperformed females in mathematics literacy in the United States and in two-thirds of the other countries.SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. (2004) International Outcomes of Learning in Mathematics Literacy and Problem Solving: PISA 2003 Results From the U.S. Perspective. (NCES 2005-003).

Related Tables and Figures: (Listed by Release Date)

• 2005, Digest of Education Statistics 2004, Table 399. Average reading literacy, mathematics literacy, science literacy, and problem-solving scores of 15-year-olds, by sex and country: 2003
• 2005, Digest of Education Statistics 2004, Table 400. Mean scores and percentage distribution of 15-year-olds scoring at each mathematics literacy proficiency level, by country: 2003
• 2003, The Condition of Education 2003: International comparisons of reading literacy in grade 4

Other Resources: (Listed by Release Date)

• 2005, Characteristics of U.S. 15-Year-Old Low Achievers in an International Context: Findings From PISA 2000
• 2005, International Comparisons in Education
• 2005, International Education Indicators
• 2005, Program for International Student Assessment
• 2004, International Outcomes of Learning in Mathematics Literacy and Problem Solving: PISA 2003 Results from the U.S. Perspective
• 2003, Comparative Indicators of Education in the United States and Other G-8 Countries: 2002
• 2003, International Comparisons in Fourth-Grade Reading Literacy: Findings from the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) of 2001
• 2001, Highlights from the 2000 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA)
• 2001, Outcomes of Learning: Results from the 2000 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) of 15-Year-Olds in Reading, Mathematics, and Science Literacy.

by Dan Lips
Posted Sep 20, 2006
More than 50 million children across America returned to school over the past few weeks, and so now is a good time to consider how much we spend on public education and whether we’re getting good value for that money. This big-picture view is disheartening.

It is a sad situation when two of the most necessary requirements for
a successful life that a society can offer, health care and education, are
in such a sad state, with costs rising at an alarming rate and providing
little in the way of reasonable outcomes for most citizens. As a nation
we spend about a half trillion dollars on education per year. Results
should be better than they are.

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 30th, 2006 at 12:05 am and is filed under Public Affairs, Money Matters, Education, Politics, disclosure, ethics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.