In math and science U.S. 15 year-olds are being outperformed by the majority of their peers around the world according to a recent NCES report
Highlights from PISA 2006: Performance of U.S. 15 Year-Old Students in Science and Mathematics Literacy in an International Context. Top performing U.S. students compare similarly to their high performing peers in other countries in science, but not in math. PISA also assessed student reading, but no U.S. reading scores were reported due to a error in printing the U.S. version of the test.
The findings
Science Literacy
- U.S. 15 year-olds scored (489) below the international average (500) in overall science literacy which was as good as or better than thirteen countries but not as good as the remaining sixteen countries. Finland was the highest performing nation (563) followed by Canada (534) and Japan (531).
- U.S. 15 year-olds also performed below the national average in two of the three subscales: explaining phenomena scientifically and using scientific evidence. They were at the international average in the identifying scientific issues subscale.
- Top performing U.S. students – those scoring at the 90th percentile—scored similar to the international average for top performers (622 and 628 respectively). Top performers in twelve of the 57 participating countries outperformed U.S. top students.
- About one-quarter (24.4 percent) of U.S. students do not reach level 2, which represents minimal scientific literacy. This is a greater percentage of low performers than the international average of 19.2 percent.
Mathematics Literacy
- U.S. 15 year-olds score of 474 was below the international average but similar or better than 25 countries. However, thirty-one countries outperformed the United States.
- The U.S. score of 483 in 2003 was not measurably different from the score of 474 in 2006. Only four countries had significant increases to their score—Mexico, Greece, Brazil and Indonesia, while seven scored lower in 2006 than 2003.
- High performing students – those scoring at the 90th percentile — in 29 other countries outperformed top performing U.S. students.
Impact of Student Background (Socioeconomic status and immigration status)
- Socioeconomic background has a greater impact on their scores of U.S. students than the average international student.
- The United States has a great percentage (15.2 percent) of students with an immigrant background than the international average (9.3 percent). However, several higher performing countries including Canada (21.1 percent), New Zealand (21.3 percent), Australia (21.9 percent), and Switzerland (22.4 percent) had a higher proportion of immigrant students than the U.S.
- The gap between U.S. immigrant students and native born students in science is 48 points -- greater than the 38 points that is equivalent to one grade level in performance. However, if you compare immigrant students and native students from the same socioeconomic status that gap is reduced to just 17 points, about half a grade level. According to PISA researchers this shows that an immigrant student's performance in the U.S. has more to do with their socioeconomic background than their immigrant status.
Impact of policy and practices
- Over three-quarters (77 percent) of U.S. 15 year-olds say they study science because they know it is useful to them while 78 percent feel it will help them in the work they want to do later on.
- There is no difference between U.S. private and public schools performance when comparing schools made up of students of similar socioeconomic status.
- Fewer 15 year-olds in the United States are taking Physics (28 percent) and Chemistry (40 percent) than students in other developed countries (78 and 73 percent respectively).
Keep in mind that:
- Rankings of scores may not be an accurate measure of each country's schools effectiveness since similar students are not being compared.
- Since students were selected by age students and not years of schooling, students in some countries may have more years of schooling than others at the time they took the test.
- PISA is not designed to explicitly measure how well students are learning their school's curriculum. Rather, it is designed to determine how well students can apply the knowledge they have gained to real world problems.
Conclusion
Although it is easy to get wrapped up with which countries finished Win, Place, or Show, it is important to keep in mind that these international assessments are an important resource of best practices around the world. Even though they do not supply all the answers, they enable us to ask the right questions. For example, poverty appears to have a greater impact on U.S. student performance than in other countries. Why is this the case? What policies and practices do countries put in place to lessen the negative impact poverty has on their students' performance? Taking the time to look deep into the data can help uncover what is working in other countries and how that may work here.
For more information about PISA and all other international assessments check out More than a horse race: A guide to international assessments of student achievement.
December 5, 2007
© 2007 Center for Public Education
