Cairo Association of Teachers - Newsletter

CAT Tracks for February 27, 2009 APPLES & ORANGES

Excuse the heck outta me, but...

How many articles have you read during the past few years...lamenting the absolute ignorance (okay, stupidity) of United States students in comparison with their foreign brethren???

Like a gazillion!!!

And, based upon these test results, "We, the People" have denigrated public education in the United States and championed charter and private schools. An English-challenged President of the United States used this "ground swell of public outrage" to persecute public schools (NOT charter and private) with NCLB!!!

Now the nation's governors want serve U.S. students PISA?

(Shall I pause and allow our resident English teachers/Grammar teachers to give us a brief lesson on homonyms, homographs, homophones and the like? I think not...)

The nation's governors want U.S. kids to take the same test given to foreign students...to get a "fair" reading...a "fair" comparison?

And the nation's governors get slammed by "the experts" for doing so!!!

Why do the nation's governors feel the urge for this "new test"?

Aren't all those kids we've been comparing for the past decades already taking the same test??

No???

Then how dare these "esteemed experts" make their "apples and oranges" comparisons in the first place...and use the "scientific results" to libel and slander the public school teachers of the United States!

How dare them indeed!!

Shame on them!!!

Study: European test too flawed to compare U.S., other students

WASHINGTON (AP) — The nation's governors and other policymakers have advocated a deeply flawed European test to judge American students, a private study has found.

The National Governors Association and other groups have been pushing states to compare their kids' performance to that of students around the world. The idea is to help the U.S. gain on better-performing countries by borrowing their best ideas.

To compare American schoolchildren, the governors have urged states to use tests including the Programme for International Student Assessment, or PISA, which is given to high school students in 57 countries. But the Brookings Institution, in a report released Tuesday, said the PISA test is too flawed.

PISA: Gender-based math gap missing in some countries

The PISA test goes beyond learning to measure values and beliefs, the report found. For example, PISA asks students whether they favor laws that protect the habitats of endangered species. And it asks if children favor electricity from renewable sources and regulating factory emissions.

"These are political judgments," said Tom Loveless, the study's author. "For me as a citizen, before I would agree or disagree with any of them, I'd need to know more about them."

Along with test results, the Paris-based group that runs PISA issues dozens of policy recommendations ranging from testing and accountability to school choice and universal pre-K. But Loveless pointed out several instances in which the group ignored data that contradict its recommendations.

And he noted the PISA test is not tied to school curriculum. That means PISA doesn't measure what schools teach; it measures real-world application, or what kids can do after schools have taught them.

That stands in contrast to the United States' National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP, often called the nation's report card, which is tied to curriculum. Another international test, the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, or TIMSS, also is tied to curriculum.

Loveless is a representative to the group that administers TIMSS and is on the U.S. advisory board for PISA.

He called on the governors and other groups not to rely on PISA to benchmark U.S. students.

"I don't believe they've done their homework," Loveless said. "PISA is inappropriate to be used as a benchmark, until these errors are addressed."

A National Governors Association official, education director Dane Linn, said the group does not favor PISA over other tests. But Linn said it should at least be considered.

"It's a little hard to ignore PISA when we have those countries representing 90% of the world's economies taking the test," Linn said.

The group has also recommended that states use other tests, such as TIMSS, to compare students. It formed an advisory group to make recommendations on the quality of states' academic standards and a range of other issues.

The group that runs PISA, the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development, called the Brookings study disingenuous. Andreas Schleicher, who directs PISA, said it's important to see how students use what they learn.

"You can ask yourself what service school is doing to students if they cannot transfer what they have learned in school to real-life contexts," Schleicher said.

Schleicher also said children's beliefs are measured separately from knowledge and skills.