Mathletics: U.S. states versus the world

Fri, 06/19/2009 - 5:05pm

Matt Yglesias points to an interesting study by the American Institute for Research. It breaks down mathematics learning scores by state, and benchmarks them to international standards meaning. This means that we know, for instance, 8th graders perform approximately as well in Hungary and Iowa (a 517 score); Slovenia and Kentucky (501); and Norway and Mississippi (469). 

Kevin Carey, on the awesomely named The Quick and the Ed blog, writes, "But the tricky thing about looking at average performance in the United States is that our education system is unusually large, diverse, and decentralized. Parts of it are really good. Other parts are shamefully bad. And in a number of important respects, we can only improve the system part by part. So it's worth knowing just how well those parts are doing."

But, to ask a question of international education wonks, do other large, diverse countries (Brazil, China, Russia, Nigeria) exhibit the same large scoring range? And do other large countries fund and administer schools locally, as the U.S. does? 

Annie Lowrey | Permalink | | Comments? Login or register
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International education

by ceolaf on Fri, 06/19/2009 - 6:17pm

A few important ideas:

* There are few countries that have the kind of ethnic diverisity and number of minority groups that the USA does, or have them in such numbers.

* Countries with higher scores tend to be more ethnically homogenous, controlling for other relevent factors.

* The USA does a relatively good job of including its poor and minorities in its education system. They do not drop out in grade school here, and they tend to be included in the testing in which we are compared to other countries.

* More economcally advanced countries do a better job of keeping kids in school longer. Duh, right?

* The relatively weak power of the central government in education in this country is almost unique. (Keep in mind that that the feds only pay 7-10% of k-12 education costs here, and have virtually no control over teaching standards, curriculum standards, text books, school structure or school governance.)

* In much of the world, especially the developing world, the rich and powerful send their kids to private schools. That might not sound so shocking, given that many in this country do the same thing. But we also have excellent public schools, too -- especially in richer areas (e.g. Fairfax County, VA, Newton, MA, New Trier, IL). As I understand it -- and I am an American education policy person, not international education policy -- the countries that Ms. Lowrie mentioned do not have excellent public schools to compare with ours.

Latam exists???

by Aparicio on Sun, 06/21/2009 - 3:06pm

Hello Annie,

Good article on the "End of the Recession". However, does Latin America exist in the world you describe?, because you talk about the whole world but Latam.