Student Ranking Overrated/Over-hyped?

[erpowers]

In recent days we have been hearing seeing a large number of reports about the fact that American students supposedly are ranked lower students in other countries. This morning I began to have questions about these test results. I wonder how relevant these ranking were and what criteria was used to make the ranking. I also wondered if these rankings were being used as a way to lower the amount of money American students demand when looking for a job and as a way to eliminate the public school system.

A few minutes ago I did some research in an effort to find information about the how these ranking are gathered and the size of the countries that did better than the United States. I wanted to look at the size of Finland in that I wanted to see how many students that country had to educate. It was my belief that depending on the size of Finland it may not have had a large amount of students to educate and therefore it might be easier for the country to educate its students. I learned that Finland has a total population of about 5.3 million people. That gives Finland a population less that Minnesota, which is the 21 st largest state in the United States of America. Therefore, America has to teach far more students than Finland's entire population.

Through my research I was also able to learn that the rankings that have been talked about some much in recent days come from two tests taken by about only 300,000 to 600,000 student from around the world. These tests are the PISA (Program for International Student Assessment) and the TIMSS (Trends in Mathematics and Science Study). In addition, it seems that these tests is not simple math and science tests which tests whether students know how to perform geometry or physics, they is considered applied math and science test. These test includes questions like "How much money would a person lose if they exchanged South African Rands for Singapore dollars given fluctuating exchange rates" and "can scientific research be used to determine the amount of chlorofluoro-carbons in the atmosphere".

I do not know if those questions should be used to determine whether students are learning math and science. I will say the second question seems more reasonable than the first, but I would like to see a test that asked actually math and science questions. Most American adults do not know the value of a South African Rand and a Singapore dollar. Should we really be asking teenagers questions about exchange rates. Asking students questions about exchange rates will not help or prevent a student in passing or failing physics 3 or doing well in a math based career.

[Fumesucker]

1. Word problems are commonly used to test a student's grasp of the relationship of math..

To the real world..

It does no good to understand how to divide, multiply and so forth if you have no idea what those actions might be used for in the real world.

We don't teach math just so kids know how to do math, the entire point of learning these skills is to apply them to real world problems, if you can't do that you are still innumerate at a deep level.

[erpowers]

4. Word Problems Not the Issue

I have no problem with word problems being used to test a kids ability to grasp math and science concepts. My problem with the questions asked is the questions that were asked. If they had students a physics question in the form of a word problem that would have been okay. However, they asked a question about something that I do not think tells whether a student can excel in math or science.

[Fumesucker]

6. Why would students in other countries be more familiar with exchange rates than American students?

I find it hard to believe that *all* the questions on the test were about currency exchange rates..

Do you have a link to the actual test so we can see for ourselves what the questions are?

[RedCloud]

2. Do those other countries have conservatives bashing and berating education?

[exboyfil]

3. Don't know about the test questions

but the U.S. obviously has a very diverse population compared to the other OECD countries. The closest representative our population is something more like Brazil. To really understand if you are comparing apples to apples is that, when not everyone is tested, that selection bias is removed. If we only test high performing suburban school districts, then we look pretty good.

Most of what I know is ancedotal. In general it seems that kids of ex-pats who come over here do better than most of our kids (compete with our best kids) and this is usually in their second language (English). I really don't think our ex-pat kids who go to European or Asian countries can do as well compariively.

In one sense it really does not matter. We do have an obligation to try to educate every child to some minimum level of performance (I think to Algebra I, Physicial Science/Biology, American History/Government/Economics, and at least a 10th/11th grade reading level). Beyond that I am not sure we will ever get there (college prep for everyone).

One thing I am sure of though is that my children's school is every bit as good as what I went through in the 1970s. I think more demands are placed on my kids than I ever had to experience. The Honors classes are much more rigorous. The only exception to this point is Language Arts. It could be that I live in a slightly more affluent school district than the one in which I was raised. Still we don't really spend that much per pupil. We just have really good parents and committed teachers.

The one huge exception is Language Arts. We do not stream in that subject, and my 7th and 8th grade Honors English was far superior to what my daughter experienced.

[uponit7771]

5. Yes, especially compared to overseas vo-techs. We have comprehensive education in the US & they dont

[seabeyond]

7. what i do know, is kids are doing more, earlier, than ever before. if system was fine three decades

ago

where is the argument today

[dawg]

8. I think the push is on to undermine public education.

I think the "Very Serious People" will use all sorts of misleading statistics and anecdotes to fool the general population into going along with them. So far, almost no one is questioning them on their premise that the public school system is broken. I think we need to challenge this, and point out where the problems really lie - unequal funding, societal problems, and quite possibly, unrealistic expectations in some cases.

[surrealAmerican]

9. I think the more relevant statistic would be ...

... the percentage of the population that is school-aged. A smaller population of students in a country like Finland, also has a smaller population of taxpayers to support education.

[Ichingcarpenter]

10. Sample Questions

7th and 8th grade Science


7) If a neutral atom loses an electron, what is formed?
A) A gas.
B) An ion.
C) An acid.
D) A molecule.


0) Which gas could cause a glowing splint to burst into flame?
A) Neon
B) Oxygen
C) Nitrogen
D)Carbon dioxide



) Maria collected the gas given off by a glowing piece of charcoal. The Gas was then bubbled through a small amount of colorless limewater. Part of Maria's report stated, "After the gas was put into the jar, the limewater gradually changed to a milky white color." This statement is
A) An observation
B) A conclusion
C) A generalization
D) An assumption of the investigation
E) A hypothesis

11th and 12 grade science and math



3) A school club is planning a bus trip to the wildlife park. A bus which will hold up to 45 people will cost 600 centros (units of money) and admission tickets cost 30 centros each.
If the cost of the trip, including bus and admission ticket, is set at 50 centros per person, what is the minimum number of people who must participate to ensure that these costs are covered?

A)12
B)20
C)30
D) 45

4) A 45 000-litre water tank is to be filled at the rate of 220 liters per minute.
Estimate, to the nearest half an hour, how long it will take to fill the tank.

A) 4 hours B) 3 1/2 hours C) 3 hours D) 2 1/2 hours



1) Experts say that 25% of all serious bicycle accidents involve head injuries and that, of all head injuries, 80% are fatal.

What percentage of all serious bicycle accidents involve fatal head injuries?

A) 16%
B)20%
C)55%
D) 105%

_________________________________________________________________________
2) If the population increases by the same rate from the year 1990 to the year 2000 as in the years from 1980 to 1990, approximately what is the expected population by the year 2000?


A) 47 million
B)50 million
C) 53 million
D) 58 million
__________________________________________________________________________

3) A school club is planning a bus trip to the wildlife park. A bus which will hold up to 45 people will cost 600 centros (units of money) and admission tickets cost 30 centros each.
If the cost of the trip, including bus and admission ticket, is set at 50 centros per person, what is the minimum number of people who must participate to ensure that these costs are covered?

A)12
B)20
C)30
D) 45


__________________________________________________________________________

4) A 45 000-litre water tank is to be filled at the rate of 220 liters per minute.
Estimate, to the nearest half an hour, how long it will take to fill the tank.

A) 4 hours B) 3 1/2 hours C) 3 hours D) 2 1/2 hours

__________________________________________________________________________

5) If there are 300 calories in 100 grams of a certain food, how many calories are there in a 30 gram portion of that food?

A)90
B)100
C) 900
D) 1000
E)9000
__________________________________________________________________________
6)
In a vineyard there are 210 rows of vines. Each row is 192 m long and plants are planted 4 m apart. On average, each plant produces 9 kg of grapes each season.

The total amount of grapes produced by the vineyard each season is closest to
A)10 000 kg
B)100 000 kg
C)400 000 kg
D)1 600 000 kg

__________________________________________________________________________

7) A store is having a ‘20% off’ sale. The normal price of a is $1250.

What is the price of the after the 20% discount is applied?

A) $1000
B)$1050
C)$1230
D)$1500
__________________________________________________________________________
8)


Each of the small squares in the figure is 1 square unit. Which is the best estimate of the area of the shaded region?

A) 10 square units
B)12 square units
C) 14 square units
D) 16 square units

E) 16 square units
__________________________________________________________________________
9) Stu wants to wrap some ribbon around a box as shown and have 25 cm left to tie a bow.


How long a piece of ribbon does he need?

A) 46 cm.
B) 52 cm.
C) 65 cm.
D)71 cm.
E)77 cm.
__________________________________________________________________________
10) Brighto soap powder is packed in cube-shaped cartons. A carton measures 10 cm on each side. The company decides to increase the length of each edge of the carton by 10 per cent. How much does the volume increase?

A) 10 cu.cm.
B) 21 cu. cm.
C)100 cu. cm.
D) 331 cu. cm.


19) Some high heeled shoes are claimed to damage floors. The base diameter of these very high heels is about 0.5 cm and of ordinary heels about 3 cm. Which answer most correctly explains why high heels may damage floors..
Why does this happen?

A) the heels are very sharp and will cause marks on the floor
B) there is greater pressure on the floor because of smaller area of the heels.
C) The heels have a smaller area, that's why they cause damage to floors.
D) A decrease in area increases the hardness of the heels.


link: http://www.edinformatics.com/timss/timss_intro.htm


I hardly think that the currency question is biased