Quote of the Day – PLUS – Why US students test low on international tests

“Contrary to conventional wisdom regarding the performance of students in the United States on PISA, poor students do not disproportionately pull down U.S. scores; relative to poor students around the world, poor students in the U.S. are average, despite being among the most socioeconomically disadvantaged. Moreover, and contrary to conventional wisdom, the richest students in the United States do not exhibit stellar performance and are average compared with other rich students globally, despite being among the richest in the world.

Middle-SES students in the United States, however, perform 17 points below the average for all middle SES students in the 42 countries we examined, suggesting that they are nearly half a school year behind middle-SES students around the world.”

Kristie J. Rowley, Florencia Silveira, Mikaela J. Dufur ll: Jonathan A. Jarvis - U.S. Underperformance in an International Context, Teachers College Record, 2019

The Plus

But the US spends more on education than anywhere else on the planet. Average to below average performance isn’t a suitable return for the investment.

There are a lot of middle Socioeconomic Status (SES) kids in the US, by the way. Enough to cancel the average performances for low- and high-income students and render the overall US average to something below world average.

https://bipps.org/blog/quote-of-the-day-plus-why-us-students-test-low-on-international-tests

https://bit.ly/3wGyD4Q