The U. S. Produces the Lion's Share of Top Scoring Students

The U. S. Produces the Lion's Share of Top Scoring Students

The United States has more than double the number of students scoring at the highest level in the science assessment of the Programme of International Student Assessment (PISA) than any other OECD nation. That's right, more than double. We have about 67,000 students at level 6, the highest on the six-point scale. Second-place Japan has about 31,000 and third place UK has 22,000. Finland, the country with the highest average score on PISA, has about 2,000 even though it has the second highest percentage of high scorers (3.9% compared to #1 New Zealand's 4.0%). The United States has about 315,000 kids scoring at Level 5, the next highest level.

These statistics make two points:

1. Comparing nations on average test scores is foolish.

2. The United States has more than enough high-scoring students to fill job openings in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

As for #1, we have so many more high scorers than anyone else because we have so many more kids than anyone else. We also have about 15 times the number of low scorers as high scorers meaning there's lots of work to do in science education, but the numbers show how silly it is to be fearful of competition from tiny nations like Singapore (with about the same population as the Washington metro area) or Finland. China and India are growing, but only 40% of Chinese kids get past 9th grade and a third of Indians are still illiterate.

We hear tall tales about places like Bangalore and Mumbai, but consider this from Meerut, a northern Indian city of 4.5 million: "Education is nothing; what matters here is source and force. 'Source' refers to upper social classes, and the entry they provide. 'Force' refers to money and social muscle applied to the job hunt." When Meerut advertised for a police sub-inspector, thousands of people applied. Researcher Craig Jeffrey asks, "what happens when the second most populous country in the world can't absorb a huge number of educated men?" (Women still don't count for much). (Degrees Without Freedom: Masculinities and Unemployment in Northern India).

As for #2, I earlier reported on the blog a study by Lindsay Lowell and Hal Salzman showing that we mint three new engineers for every one new engineering job and that within two years of attaining a bachelor's in science or engineering, 65% of the graduates were no longer in those areas (lousy pay, lousy chances for advancement).

Salzman and Lowell are also the source of the statistics that opened this blog although anyone can find them at www.pisa.oecd.org. These statistics and others appear in their piece, "Making the Grade" in the May issue of Nature (www.nature.com, search on Salzman).

Salzman and Lowell compare ranking nations on average test scores to ranking runners on average shoe size, ignoring any performance measure. "If as we argue, average test scores are mostly irrelevant as a measure of economic potential, other indicators do matter. To produce leading-edge technology, one could argue that it is the numbers of high-performing students that is most important in the global economy...Remarkable, but little noted, is the fact that the United States produces the lion's share of the world's best students." Well, for that to be wholly true, one would have to be satisfied with test scores in general and PISA in particular as valid indicators of performance. I am not so satisfied and as I indicated in the 18th Bracey Report on the Condition of Public Education (Phi Delta Kappan, October 2008), a number of European researchers have poked large holes in PISA.

Still, Salzman and Lowell give us a perspective on U. S. performance seldom seen.

Comments

[Gerald Bracey - Huffpost Blogger]

Shrinath:

My post contained a citation of a book. That's about as specific as I can get right now.

The "tall tales" refers to the depiction by school critics such as Eli Broad, Bill Gates, and Bob Wise and, especially, Bob Compton. Compton produced a video that tracks six students, an American boy and girl, an Indian boy and girl and a Chinese boy and girl. It attempts to show the American kids as slackers and the others as 24/7 grinds. What it actually shows is that the American kids have options while the lives of the Indian and Chinese students are totally fixated on school and on getting into the "right" university.

If you see it, I'd like to know your reactions.
[e-mail]

[Shrinath]

_PART TWO

My talking points.

1. There is no election manifesto to state wherein the schools should teach "Intelligent Design"

2. The school syllabi, especially in Central Board of Secondary Education - high school, is comparable with any college level course.

3. Number of students graduating from this system, each year, runs into millions. I do not have the figure but will get it from the department (could not get the info. online)

4. Most students opt for Science. Usually drop-outs, in this stream, is unheard off.

5. The new centers that are propelling are the tri-cities in the south. Bangalore-Chennai-Hyderabad.

Women's rights.

1. The woman absolutely the right to choose whether she wants the child or not.

2. Contraceptive pills and family planning is not dictated by any religious organization and definitely not by the State.

3. Equal pay is not an issue because the working woman is treated on par with the male of the same cadre.

4. There is in-fact a Bill pending in the Parliament for affirmative action towards women legislators and demarcating 33%.

I could go on, but the point is moot. Many challenges lie ahead. The enormous population and the government's affair till the late 80s with socialistic tendencies has been its undoing. Corruption is rife. A universal phenomenon.

I leave you with this article that appeared in NY TImes.

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/03/indian-math-tutors-math-deficient-americans/?apage=3

[philistine]

Why do we have H1-B visas? It is clear that the reason has nothing to do with a shortage of qualified programmers in the U.S.. Businesses want H1-B visas to keep prevailing wages from reaching their true value in the marketplace. This whole scheme is part and parcel of the neocon philosophy. Our current economic situation instructs us that such philosophy is wrong-headed. We need more well-paying jobs; not just more service jobs to replace the work being offshored. Our engineers should be building things instead of flipping burgers and selling soft drinks.

[Shrinath]

I do not know whether this is a feel good week or generally a bash-everything-that-is-not-USA week. Generally, the intelligence of the bloggers on HuffPost has been stupendous. Most of them have rigorously checked their data prior to posting. The tone and the tenor has been fantastic. However, this particular post has me shaking my head and wondering. In one fell swoop, the author, has demonized the entire nation. I am an Indian, though I consider myself to be a world citizen since I have worked and lived across three continents and too many cities (have lived across the coast, from 'Frisco to the big apple).

As a policy I refrain from getting into a country based agenda as to who is better or which system is better. But, alas for everything there is an exception.

Hear tall tales from Bangalore and Mumbai? Sir, do you wish to tell me, what they are and why you are inclined to believe that they are not true? Here you are, declaring boldly that "women don't count for much"? Can you get specific? I acknowledge the lacunae in terms of women's rights. But no more so than in say, USA. And you base your theory on one incident that happened in a city called Meerut? Yes, there is a huge divide in terms of outlook from the the North to the South.

---------------PART ONE