WHEN the first Programme for International Student
Assessment (PISA) tests to focus on maths results were published a decade ago, Finland’s
blue-cross flag fluttered near the top of the rankings. Its pupils excelled at
numeracy, and topped the table in science and reading. Education reformers
found the prospect of non-selective, high-achieving and low-stress education
bewitching.
Every three years since then, 15-year-olds have sat PISA tests in maths,
reading and science. In 2012 fully 500,000 heads were bent over desks for the
exam in 65 countries or cities. The results, published on December 3rd, doled
out a large helping of humble pie to Europe’s
former champion. Finland
has fallen by 22 points on its 2009 result, with smaller falls (12 points and
9) in reading and science. “The golden days are over,” lamented the Finnbay
news website.
And:
As Finns argue about how to retain their pre-eminence, many
other countries in the West still envy it—as well as the progress of rapid
improvers such as Estonia and Poland. France
and Germany,
in contrast, have flatlined. America’s
dire showing led Arne Duncan, the education secretary, to decry “a picture of
educational stagnation”, with Americans being “out-educated” by the Chinese.
Some hope for a motivating shock like that delivered in 1957 by the Soviet
Sputnik launch.
Get me into orbit
More important than individual country scores are the
underlying trends. Asian systems are clearly no longer just hothouses for
swots. Their best performers have briskly extended opportunity to children of
poorer families, narrowing the achievement gap. Chinese officials say other big
urban centres will emulate Shanghai’s
stellar results by 2029.
Andreas Schleicher, who runs the PISA
tests on behalf of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development,
a Paris-based think-tank for rich countries, notes that well over half of Shanghai’s pupils had a “deep conceptual knowledge” of
maths, as opposed to around 13% in middling countries like Britain. That pertained even for
those from disadvantaged backgrounds: “a remarkable performance”, concludes Mr
Schleicher.
The US is stagnant after over a decade of No Child Left Behind and a few more years of Race to the Top? Wow, those must be working - let's do them only make them MORE rigorous! Because we all know that the definition of success is doing the same thing over and over (only trying harder, right?) and expecting different results.....
ReplyDeleteSeriously, when does Arne Duncan get to take the fall for the ineffectiveness of current education policy? Teachers around the country are losing their jobs based on low test scores - but he gets to stay in charge, even though he has no experience as an educator?
Or do we have to spend ANOTHER 3 years and fall FURTHER for people to realize this isn't the way to go, that the kids in wealthier districts are scoring just fine thank you while kids in poorer schools with fewer supports score lower - as if they don't already know that? My kids - OUR kids! - don't have another three years to be part of the grand Common Core experiment. :-(