Once again we have been reminded–via the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA)–that U.S. students continue to lag behind their teen-aged counterparts when it comes to math, science and reading. U.S. 15-year-olds did no better than 24th in reading, 28th in science and 36th in math. There were no bonus points for remediation emphasis. Top global leaders were the usual suspects: China, Singapore, Japan, Taiwan and South Korea. Other familiar names: Canada, Ireland, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Netherlands, Poland, Estonia and Finland.
Here in the U.S., the usual knee-jerk response was elicited: ever higher standards. And the usual skepticism ensued: Are standardized tests part of the solution or problem?
Standardized tests are certainly in the mix, but they’re not as impacting as obvious demographics and common sense deficits. To wit:
You’d be hard pressed to find permanent, sizable, minority underclasses in Liechtenstein or Finland. The correlation between economic status and academic progress is a universal given.
You’d also be out of luck if you were looking for a societal-cultural counterpart in Japan of academic accomplishment trivialized and debased as “acting white.”
And you’d find no takers in Estonia for a pedagogic approach that valued self-esteem over achievement.