More on the PISA results.....

The Art of Teaching Science Blog, Jack Hassard on January 5, 2011

PISA Test Results Through the Lens of Poverty

  In schools where less than 10 percent of students get free or reduced lunch, the reading score is 551. That would place those U.S. students at No. 2 on the international ranking for reading, just behind Shanghai, China which topped the ranking with a score of 556.

  Of all the nations participating in the PISA assessment, the U.S. has, by far, the largest number of students living in poverty–21.7%. The next closest nations in terms of poverty levels are the United Kingdom and New Zealand have poverty rates that are 75% of ours.

  U.S. students in schools with 10% or less poverty are number one country in the world.

  U.S. students in schools with 10-24.9% poverty are third behind Korea, and Finland.

  U.S. students in schools with 25-50% poverty are tenth in the world.

http://www.artofteachingscience.org/?p=3233

neatoday – news from the National Education Association

The Economics Behind International Education Rankings

December 9, 2010 by Cynthia McCabe 

http://neatoday.org/2010/12/09/a-look-at-the-economic-numbers-on-international-education-rankings/

The Principal Difference Blog – Mel Riddle, December 15, 2010

PISA: It's Poverty Not Stupid

The comparison of PISA scores by poverty clearly identifies our strengths and challenges as a nation. Our schools with less than 50% poverty) are some of the best in the world. Our extremely high-poverty schools, with over 50% poverty, are among the poorest performing internationally.

Instead of labeling all schools as failing, we must find a way to raise the performance of our students in under-resourced schools. Instead of looking to low-poverty countries like Finland for direction, we should be looking to take what we already know about educating students in high-performing, high-poverty schools like our Breakthrough Schools and scaling up their successes across the nation.

http://nasspblogs.org/principaldifference/2010/12/pisa_its_poverty_not_stupid_1.html

Another Meaningless Statistical Analysis of School Performance

On his blog, Cheltenham School Board member, engineer and renaissance man Jim Butt comments on a recent study by the 21st Century Partnership for STEM Education which explored the relationship between the amount of educational expenditures per student and high school achievement in Pennsylvania.