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Pisa results: US among worst performers in mathematics, but makes small gains in science
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The performance of American high school students in mathematics has fallen significantly behind other countries, according to the world’s most influential education league tables published today.
The US ranking for math fell from 36th to 40th, according to the Programe for International Student Assessment (Pisa) results, making it one of the worst performers among industrialized countries.
Its league table position in science improved slightly - up from 29th to 25th - while performance in reading remained static with a ranking of 24th, according to the tests administered by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
Singapore topped all three tables, which are based on the performance of 15 year-old students. While the Far Eastern countries remain dominant in math, where they took all seven top places, the pattern in science and reading was more mixed, with Estonia taking third place in science and Canada taking third place in reading.
Shanghai, which had topped all three tables in 2012, was not entered as a separate province in this round of testing. Instead four Chinese provinces, Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu and Guangdong, have had their scores combined and have taken 10th place in science, 6th place in maths and 27th place in reading.
A total of 72 countries took part in the 2015 round of Pisa, which has established itself as the most influential set of international education league tables. Governments around the world use the results to justify policy changes and the results will be watched closely to see what can be learned from other nations.
The results come after another set of international comparisons - the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMMS) - found 4th and 8th grade students in America were also falling further behind their Asian peers in math and science.
The main focus of this year’s Pisa results is science. The US score, which has remained almost unchanged over the past three years, ranks slightly above average.
But while the country is placed 25th in the table, there are significant variations state-by-state. Pisa has highlighted the results in Massachusetts for particular praise, with a score (529 points) in science that is comparable with some of the top-performing education systems in the world.
“Among the 122 countries and regions with comparable data, only Singapore shows significantly higher scores than Massachusetts,” the report notes.
The state also excels at reading, with a score (527 points) that again ranks it among the best in the world, and significantly above overall US performance.
In math, however, the US is among the lowest performing OECD countries. Just over one in ten students in OECD countries are top performers in math, the findings reveal. In Singapore, this increases to one in three students - but in America, just one in 17 students makes the grade.
Hungary, Lithuania and Wales, which all ranked below the US last time have now moved above it.
The math results of students in Massachusetts were in line with the OECD average, putting them on a par with countries including Australia, Germany, France and the UK.
The results also highlight a problem with student truancy in America. On average across OECD countries, 20 per cent of students said they had skipped a day of school in the two weeks before the test, but in the US that rate was almost double at 37 per cent. Students in America were also much more likely to arrive late for school.
The poor performance of American students should act as a “Sputnik moment” to inspire improvements in US schools, according to Marc Tucker, president of the National Center on Education and the Economy.
“We’re living in a world that is highly integrated,” Mr Tucker told the Washington Post. “And the United States cannot long operate a world-class economy if our workers are, as the OECD statistics show, among the worst-educated in the world.”
“Donald Trump as candidate basically staked his candidacy on the plight of industrial workers in the United States,” he said. “The Chinese workers are vastly better educated than the typical American worker and willing to work for one-fifth of what the equivalent American workers are willing to work for.”
However, Pisa has its detractors who believe there is little to be learned from comparing test scores and who criticize its methodology.
One long-standing critic, Professor Yong Zhao, from the University of Oregon, argues that Pisa hinders innovation among countries that do well for fear of losing their ranking. He is also critical of Shanghai’s success because the system there, he says, “stifles creativity, smothers curiosity, suppresses individuality [and] ruins children’s health”.
Science2015 (2012)
Rank
Country
Score
1 (3)
Singapore
556 (551)
2 (4)
Japan
538 (547)
3 (6)
Estonia
534 (541)
4 (13)
Taiwan
532 (523)
5 (5)
Finland
531 (545)
6 (16)
Macao (China)
529 (521)
7 (11)
Canada
528 (525)
8 (8)
Vietnam
525 (528)
9 (2)
Hong Kong (China)
523 (555)
10 (1 - as shanghai)
Beijing-Shanghai-Jiangsu-Guangdong (China)
518 (580 - as Shanghai)
11 (7)
South Korea
516 (538)
12 (18)
New Zealand
513 (516)
13 (20)
Slovenia
513 (514)
England
512 (516)
14 (17)
Australia
510 (521)
15 (21)
United Kingdom
509 (514)
16 (12)
Germany
509 (524)
17 (14)
Netherlands
509 (522)
18 (19)
Switzerland
506 (515)
19 (15)
Republic of Ireland
503 (522)
20 (24)
Belgium
502 (505)
21 (27)
Denmark
502 (498)
22 (9)
Poland
501 (526)
23 (36)
Portugal
501 (489)
Northern Ireland
500 (507)
24 (28)
Norway
498 (497)
Scotland
497 (513)
25 (29)
USA
496 (497)
26 (23)
Austria
495 (506)
27 (26)
France
495 (499)
28 (38)
Sweden
493 (485)
29 (22)
Czech Republic
493 (508)
30 (30)
Spain
493 (496)
31 (25)
Latvia
490 (502)
32 (37)
Russia
487 (486)
Wales
485 (491)
33 (34)
Luxembourg
483 (491)
34 (32)
Italy
481 (494)
35 (33)
Hungary
477 (494)
36 (31)
Lithuania
475 (496)
37 (35)
Croatia
475 (491)
38 (58 - as Argentina)
Buenos Aires (Argentina)
475 (406 - as Argentina)
39 (39)
Iceland
473 (478)
40 (41)
Israel
467 (470)
Mathematics
2015 (2012)
Rank
Country
Score
1 (2)
Singapore
564 (573)
2 (3)
Hong Kong (China)
548 (561)
3 (6)
Macao (China)
544 (538)
4 (4)
Taiwan
542 (560)
5 (7)
Japan
532 (536)
6 (1 - as shanghai)
Beijing-Shanghai-Jiangsu-Guangdong (China)
531 (613 - as shanghai)
7 (5)
South Korea
524 (554)
8 (9)
Switzerland
521 (531)
9 (11)
Estonia
520 (521)
10 (13)
Canada
516 (518)
11 (10)
Netherlands
512 (523)
12 (22)
Denmark
511 (500)
13 (12)
Finland
511 (519)
14 (21)
Slovenia
510 (501)
15 (15)
Belgium
507 (515)
16 (16)
Germany
506 (514)
17 (14)
Poland
504 (518)
18 (20)
Republic of Ireland
504 (501)
19 (30)
Norway
502 (489)
20 (18)
Austria
497 (506)
21 (23)
New Zealand
495 (500)
22 (17)
Vietnam
495 (511)
23 (34)
Russia
494 (482)
24 (38)
Sweden
494 (478)
25 (19)
Australia
494 (504)
England
493 (495)
26 (25)
France
493 (495)
Northern Ireland
493 (487)
27 (26)
United Kingdom
492 (494)
28 (24)
Czech Republic
492 (499)
29 (31)
Portugal
492 (487)
Scotland
491 (498)
30 (32)
Italy
490 (485)
31 (27)
Iceland
488 (493)
32 (33)
Spain
486 (484)
33 (29)
Luxembourg
486 (490)
34 (28)
Latvia
482 (491)
35 (NA)
Malta
479 (NA)
36 (37)
Lithuania
478 (479)
Wales
478 (468)
37 (39)
Hungary
477 (477)
38 (35)
Slovak Republic
475 (482)
39 (41)
Israel
470 (466)
40 (36)
United States
470 (481)
Reading2015 (2012)
Rank
Country
Score
1 (3)
Singapore
535 (542)
2 (2)
Hong Kong (China)
527 (545)
3 (8)
Canada
527 (523)
4 (6)
Finland
526 (524)
5 (9)
Ireland
521 (523)
6 (12)
Estonia
519 (516)
7 (5)
South Korea
517 (536)
8 (4)
Japan
516 (538)
9 (22)
Norway
513 (504)
10 (14)
New Zealand
509 (512)
11 (19)
Germany
509 (508)
12 (16)
Macao (China)
509 (509)
13 (10)
Poland
506 (518)
14 (38)
Slovenia
505 (481)
15 (15)
Netherlands
503 (511)
16 (13)
Australia
503 (512)
17 (37)
Sweden
500 (483)
18 (25)
Denmark
500 (496)
England
500 (500)
19 (21)
France
499 (505)
20 (18)
Belgium
499 (509)
21 (31)
Portugal
498 (488)
22 (23)
United Kingdom
498 (499)
23 (7)
Taiwan
497 (523)
Northern Ireland
497 (498)
24 (24)
United States
497 (498)
25 (32)
Spain
496 (488)
26 (41)
Russia
487 (475)
27 (1 - as Shanghai)
Beijing-Shanghai-Jiangsu-Guangdong (China)
494 (570 - as Shanghai)
Scotland
493 (506)
28 (17)
Switzerland
492 (509)
29 (29)
Latvia
488 (489)
30 (20)
Czech Republic
487 (508)
31 (35)
Croatia
487 (485)
32 (20)
Vietnam
487 (508)
33 (27)
Austria
485 (490)
34 (28)
Italy
485 (490)
35 (36)
Iceland
482 (483)
36 (30)
Luxembourg
481 (488)
37 (34)
Israel
479 (486)
Wales
477 (480)
38 (60 - as Argentina)
Buenos Aires (Argentina)
475 (396 - as Argentina)
39 (39)
Lithuania
472 (477)
40 (33)
Hungary
470 (488)
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