Pat Buoncristiani raises interesting questions about what can be learned from PISA.
Some nations see the international tests as a giant race, and their leaders all want to be number 1. This leads to more and more testing, but not the kind of thoughtful education policies that prepare young people to live in the world. There are no jobs that require bubbling-in skills.
If we could forget the horse race, we might learn what top-performing nations do and sort through it.
Pat is alarmed that New York State is blowing away $32 million on testing. How do you think she would feel about Texas spending nearly $500 million for the same testing?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
… which begs the question – nationally, what are we spending on testing and test related materials?
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Reblogged this on Thinking in the Deep End.
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This is probably the most important note:
“We know from PISA that in the 2006 round of testing less than 10% of the variation in student performance was explained by student background in five of the seven countries with the highest mean science scores of above 530 points. PISA demonstrates that equity and performance are highly related. In Finland, equity is considered more important than excellence. Dr Sahlberg tells us that “we have systematically focused on equity and equality in our education system, and not so much on excellence and achievement like many other countries have done.”
I would also point out though that FInland’s society is more equitable (and homogenous) to begin with, even before considering equity in school funding.
Finland has a very low child poverty rate, while the child poverty rate in the U.S. is astronomical. This fact is what is killing student outcomes in the U.S. before we even approach discussions about school funding.
From what I understand Helsinki is the only place with compromised student outcomes and high(er) teacher attrition. And of course, Helsinki is where you find the most poverty.
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Yes! And spending vast amounts of money on testing does nothing to alleviate the poverty that drags our kids (and our society) down. The root of our problem is societal. Changing curriculum, creating more tests, rewriting text books – none of this will fix a problem that continues to grow as long as we have so many of our students living in poverty and without the resources needed to give them the opportunity to access education equally with their more affluent peers. There are programs and practices that have worked in high poverty schools. But they need highly qualified teachers and the financial resources to support them. As long as billions of dollars go towards testing, we will never have the money to finance these programs on a large scale. The long term solution to poverty rests in large part on education.
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All the comments are right on target, and seldom see the light of day! The untold BILLIONS spent on testing, pre and post materials, just to name a few of the costly waste that is perpetrated across this nation is, to me, almost black mail. Buck that system and the penalty will be excruciating. More significant is WHO is making the billions? Any digging will give you the answer: the Bush clan, and that includes cousins, and other relatives. It’s a scandal! “W” forced “No child left behind” on every public school district and had his clan have an almost exclusive lock on test prep, evaluations and ALL the other costly items to supposedly facilitate this meaningless waste of teacher’s classroom time and worse, the damage done to students with the “sink or swim” designations. I know this first hand! I taught in Texas in a lower socio/economic
area with a large black and hispanic population. I saw students in my class who had given up on their viability in school, change to feeling they were able and had potential. That took a lot of reforming their self-concepts that had been savaged by not making the required score on their NCLB tests. One particular little black student had been designated as not worth the time, since he was not a “bubble” student. Bubble students were those who were within 20 points of passsing the former year’s tests. He had adopted this designation as proof of his low intellectual level and had, predictably become a behavior problem. I took extreme interest in his psychi and those of his
peers who were thrown in that refuse heap. Month after month, he and his circle became interested, felt they truly were smart and would pass! I will never forget the destruction of a child that I witnessed when he missed passing by one point, and the utter dejection and hopelessness that caused. NO credilt was given to him for raising his score over 30 points! How vicious to make children guinea pigs with the flim flam
regime that this “growth industry” has destroyed so many children (and teachers) with!
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A couple of my students are in the PISA cohort this year. They’re both recently Limited English Proficient, though.
I know because a counselor dropped off some paperwork for them while they were taking their quarter exam. They both did poorly on the chemistry test, by the way, well below their in-class performance. They just didn’t connect with the questions, and generally wrote something correct but off-topic. Their multiple choices were weak, too.
I think Finnish teachers avoid those problems by not having 40% of their students come from homes where the language spoken isn’t Finnish.
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very true. The USA has a very diverse population indeed and I don’t think any small country should be used as a comparison. This is not apples to apples at all. But Pat Buoncristiani did raise many excellent points and if we could address those in the near future (focus more on equity for example) then the fact that we have such a diverse culture would not affect our scores and educational goals as much. Minorities and linguistically diverse students are underrepresented in our gifted programs and over represented in special education programs because they score lower on our standardized test and would, of course, score lower on the PISA as well. Insert educational equity and these types of problems would abate over time..or at least should.
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This is the Hunger Games, and we are District 1.
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I would laugh is this wasn’t so sad and true.
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A big problem is this country is we tend to focus on just math and reading. What we need to do is create a curriculum that includes useful tools and skills students can use in later life. I think a big reason kids don’t well in school is because they are bored. I would be too if half of my day consisted of only math and reading. Lets stop focusing on competing with the rest of the world, and more on creating a school environment that every child will want to come each day, and a curriculum that is fun and enriching for both girls and boys.
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