U.S. Students Show Significant Gains in Math, Science Results

[FarCenter]

American 15-year-olds saw some improvements in the latest round of international standardized tests administered by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, headquartered in Paris, France. Science and math scores measurably improved over the previous round of OECD's Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) survey for American teenagers, while reading stayed statistically flat, albeit above the international average. The overall ranking for U.S. students in this year's PISA assessment rose six places since the previous assessment in 2006.

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The overall gains for the United States were some of the largest in this year's assessment. The United States' six-slot improvement placed it at No. 19 overall (out of the 33 countries in the OECD) and was topped only by Norway, which rose nine positions to land in 13th place; Iceland, which gained eight places and ended in 11th place; and Poland, which rose seven places to tie with Iceland for 11th.

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In reading, U.S. students averaged an even 500 points, placing the United States in seventh position overall. Thirteen countries were in a statistical dead heat with the United States, and 13 others came in significantly lower than the United States. (Note that in some documents, Estonia is listed among the 33 OECD countries' rankings, though, like the Russian Federation, it is not yet a full OECD member, but an "accession candidate.")

Math and Science results at http://thejournal.com/articles/2010/12/07/u.s.-students-show-significant-gains-in-math-science-results.aspx

[mzteris]

1. other interesting bits:

PISA 2009
Reading Literacy Demographics

Females outscored males in reading literacy in every single country that participated in the 2009 PISA survey. In the United States, the average gap between women and men was 25 points (a smaller gap than the 39-point OECD average gap).

Socioeconomics played an obvious role in the results. Based solely on percentage of students receiving free or reduced-price lunches in the United States, the scores followed a near-linear trend:

% of Students Eligible for Free/Reduced-Price Lunches Score
U.S. Average 500
Less than 10% 551
10% to 24.9% 527
25% to 49.9% 502
50% to 74.9% 471
75% to 100% 446
Source: U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics, "Highlights From PISA 2009."

Ethnicity was also a significant factor. As seen in the recently released NAEP results, American students of Asian descent scored highest in reading, with an average score of 541, followed by students categorized as white (525), Hispanic (466), and black (441).

[Liberal_in_LA]

2. interesting additional details