Bob Somerby, taught for many years in the Baltimore public schools. His blog The Daily Howler offers a fearless critique of media coverage of critical events.
His post on the latest international assessments (TIMSS) and the media’s decision tiresome putdown of American students is a classic.
He points out that on the math portions of the TIMSS tests, US students performed about the same as their peers in Finland. On the eighth grade TIMSS math tests, American students in several states outperformed Finland.
This should have been major news, in light of the constant ballyhoo about how poorly U.S. students have been doing for years on international tests. Decrying American student performance is the reformers’ trump card.
But instead of pointing to the real news, most papers told the same old story, which they might as well have written 20 years ago: “US Lags…”
At least a few thoughtful testing experts (Yong Zhao, Pasi Sahlberg, Keith Baker) recognize that the international horse race is nonsensical.
Once a nation reaches a certain level of development, the scores don’t tell you much about the national system or about the future of the economy.
Not everyone can be first. And it really doesn’t matter who is first.
Perhaps we should look at other metrics as more important, for example, what proportion of children are healthy? What proportion live in poverty? What proportion have access to high-quality preschool?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Frankly, it would seem like an opportunity for the shameless spin doctors, to argue that test prep is working.
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The other factor not talked about is that all US students take these tests. In other countries only the college bound students take teh test. They have a vocational track for those students with talents in those areas. Here we have put vocational training down. Today we are paying for this elitism. Companies say they have work but cannot find trained tradesmen to fill those positions. If we educated more realistically we would hear less about our ‘lag’ behind other countries.
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I don’t think we lag behind other countries.
The businesses who can’t find trained workers are not willing to pay American wages.
They want to hire people to do their jobs for wages that are far below American living standards.
That’s why they go to India and China, not to Europe.
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“Perhaps we should look at other metrics as more important, for example, what proportion of children are healthy? What proportion live in poverty? What proportion have access to high-quality preschool?”
What a novel idea!
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I agree with you. It’s telling that we don’t find to improve poverty levels.
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And Shanghai is not a country==and “illegal immigrants” (Chinese rural families) can’t go to school there, etc. Based on what I was told when I was there–schools ae for the middle class and up. (Besides would yu believe anything that depen ds on the Chinese gov’t??–even if superised by a reputahble body.))
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Reblogged this on … Not the Principal's Office!!!.
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Does anyone know how media and/or government representatives perform on such tests? I have never heard either claim expertise based on their own scores before offering allegedly authoritative comment.
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