Showing posts with label PISA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label PISA. Show all posts

December 3, 2013

PISA science scores by race

From the federal National Center for Education Statistics, here are 2012 Science Literacy PISA scores for 15-year-olds, breaking out Americans by race:

OECD average              501
Shanghai-China            580
Hong Kong-China           555
Singapore                 551
Japan                     547
Asian Americans 546
Finland                   545
Estonia                   541
Korea, Republic of        538
White Americans 528
Vietnam                   528
Massachusetts All Races  527
Poland                    526
Canada                    525
Liechtenstein             525
Germany                   524
Chinese Taipei            523
Netherlands               522
Ireland                   522
Connecticut All Races 521
Australia                 521
Macao-China               521
New Zealand               516
Switzerland               515
Slovenia                  514
United Kingdom            514
Multiracial Americans 511
Czech Republic            508
Austria                   506
Belgium                   505
Latvia                    502
France                    499
Denmark                   498
United States             497
Spain                     496
Lithuania                 496
Norway                    495
Hungary                   494
Italy                     494
Croatia                   491
Luxembourg                491
Portugal                  489
Russian Federation        486
Florida All Races 485
Sweden                    485
Iceland                   478
Slovak Republic           471
Israel                    470
Greece                    467
Turkey                    463
Hispanic Americans 462
United Arab Emirates      448
Bulgaria                  446
Chile                     445
Serbia, Republic of       445
Thailand                  444
African Americans 439
Romania                   439
Cyprus                    438
Costa Rica                429
Kazakhstan                425
Malaysia                  420
Uruguay                   416
Mexico                    415
Montenegro, Republic of   410
Jordan                    409
Argentina                 406
Brazil                    405
Colombia                  399
Tunisia                   398
Albania                   397
Qatar                     384
Indonesia                 382
Peru                      373

Asian Americans did about average for wealthy Northeast Asians, white Americans beat all traditionally white countries except Finland and Estonia, Latino Americans beat all Latin American countries, and African Americans likely would have beaten all majority black countries by a comfortable margin.

What are the trends in U.S. PISA scores?

Scores for 65 countries (or "economies") are now out from the OECD's Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). How have scores in the U.S. changed since PISA got going in 2000? 

From the federal NCES explorer tool for PISA scores:

Subject 2000 2003 2006 2009 2012
Mathematics 483 474 487 481
Science 489 502 497
Reading 504 495 500 498

Scores were down slightly in 2012 versus 2009, but they had been higher in 2009 than in preceding years (when, unfortunately, not all three subjects had been tested). Overall, 2012 scores look about the same as 21st Century scores in general, with no consistent trends visible in any subject.

So, that's kind of boring. The reason I mention it is because PISA results usually lead to great wailing and gnashing of teeth about Decline, etc.

PISA tests are scored like SATs with 500 as the intended mean for wealthy OECD countries (it usually slips below that) and a standard deviation of 100. So a 400 is at the 16th percentile for the OECD and 600 at the 84th percentile.

For more postings devoted to analyzing PISA scores, click on Labels: PISA below. 

PISA reading scores by race: America does pretty well

On the international PISA tests in 2012, American 15-year-olds tended to do best on Reading Literacy, medium on Science Literacy, and worst on Mathematics Literacy. I have no idea whether that's for real or just a reflection of the difficulties of translating PISA tests into dozens of languages and making them equally hard in all. Here's our strong suit Reading, with American racial groups broken out according to the federal governments National Center for Education Statistics website for exploring the new PISA data:

OECD average              496
Shanghai-China            570
Asian Americans 550
Hong Kong-China           545
Singapore                 542
Japan                     538
Korea, Republic of        536
Massachusetts All Races 527
Finland                   524
Ireland                   523
Chinese Taipei            523
Canada                    523
Connecticut All Races 521
White Americans 519
Poland                    518
Multiracial Americans 517
Estonia                   516
Liechtenstein             516
New Zealand               512
Australia                 512
Netherlands               511
Belgium                   509
Switzerland               509
Macao-China               509
Vietnam                   508
Germany                   508
France                    505
Norway                    504
United Kingdom            499
United States             498
Denmark                   496
Czech Republic            493
Florida All Races 492
Italy                     490
Austria                   490
Latvia                    489
Hungary                   488
Spain                     488
Luxembourg                488
Portugal                  488
Israel                    486
Croatia                   485
Sweden                    483
Iceland                   483
Slovenia                  481
Hispanic Americans 478
Lithuania                 477
Greece                    477
Turkey                    475
Russian Federation        475
Slovak Republic           463
Cyprus                    449
Serbia, Republic of       446
African Americans 443
United Arab Emirates      442
Chile                     441
Thailand                  441
Costa Rica                441
Romania                   438
Bulgaria                  436
Mexico                    424
Montenegro, Republic of   422
Uruguay                   411
Brazil                    410
Tunisia                   404
Colombia                  403
Jordan                    399
Malaysia                  398
Indonesia                 396
Argentina                 396
Albania                   394
Kazakhstan                393
Qatar                     388
Peru                      384

In reading, Asian Americans beat all Asian countries, and trailed only the prosperous city of Shanghai.

White Americans came in fourth among historically white countries, behind only Finland, Ireland, and Canada. White Americans beat a couple of dozen historically white countries wealthy enough to belong to the OECD. Of course, most of these aren't as white as they used to be anymore.

Hispanic Americans beat all eight Latin American countries.

African Americans didn't have any competition from predominantly black counties in Africa or the West Indies, but it's worth noting that African Americans beat all eight Latin American countries.

Keep in mind that this is just in Reading, which American tends to do better in than Math or Science.

Keep in mind that Americans spend a huge amount of money on education.

For more postings devoted to analyzing PISA scores, click the Labels: PISA below. 

PISA Racial results for Americans on Math

With PISA results being released today, you are going to hear a lot about how stupid American 15-year-olds are, but smart analysts remember to always adjust for race.

From the federal National Center for Education Statistics, a breakdown of 2012 PISA math scores showing how Americans of different races compare to the world. PISA scores are much like SAT scores, with an intended mean of 500 for the OECD (i.e., rich) countries and a standard deviation of 100. On PISA, Math is America's worst subject (Reading is its best).

OECD average              494
Shanghai-China            613
Singapore                 573
Hong Kong-China           561
Chinese Taipei            560
Korea, Republic of        554
Asian-Americans 549
Macao-China               538
Japan                     536
Liechtenstein             535
Switzerland               531
Netherlands               523
Estonia                   521
Finland                   519
Canada                    518
Poland                    518
Belgium                   515
Massachusetts-All Races 514
Germany                   514
Vietnam                   511
White Americans 506
Connecticut-All Races 506
Austria                   506
Australia                 504
Ireland                   501
Slovenia                  501
Denmark                   500
New Zealand               500
Czech Republic            499
France                    495
OECD Average 494
United Kingdom            494
Iceland                   493
Multiracial Americans 492
Latvia                    491
Luxembourg                490
Norway                    489
Portugal                  487
Italy                     485
Spain                     484
Russian Federation        482
Slovak Republic           482
United States             481
Lithuania                 479
Sweden                    478
Hungary                   477
Croatia                   471
Florida-All Races 467
Israel                    466
Hispanic Americans 455
Greece                    453
Serbia, Republic of       449
Turkey                    448
Romania                   445
Cyprus                    440
Bulgaria                  439
United Arab Emirates      434
Kazakhstan                432
Thailand                  427
Chile                     423
African Americans 421
Malaysia                  421
Mexico                    413
Montenegro, Republic of   410
Uruguay                   409
Costa Rica                407
Albania                   394
Brazil                    391
Argentina                 388
Tunisia                   388
Jordan                    386
Colombia                  376
Qatar                     376
Indonesia                 375
Peru                      368

From the federal NCES, a breakdown of 2012 PISA math scores for American students by race:

Below
level 1
Level 1
Level 2
Level 3
Level 4
Level 5
Level 6
< 358
< 421
< 483
< 555
< 607
< 670
>= 670
Race/ethnicity
%
%
%
%
%
%
%
OECD average
8.0
15.0
22.5
23.7
18.2
9.3
3.3
U.S. average
8.0
17.9
26.3
23.3
15.8
6.6
2.2
White
3.6
11.5
25.0
27.8
20.3
8.8
3.0
Black
21.0
32.0
25.3
14.0
6.7
1.0
Hispanic
10.8
24.2
30.2
20.3
10.2
3.5
0.7
Asian
5.4
15.6
23.6
28.1
16.1
9.0
Multiracial
17.1
29.6
23.3
16.4
7.7
Cumulative: Bottom Up
OECD average
8.0
23.0
45.5
69.2
87.4
96.7
100.0
U.S. average
8.0
25.8
52.1
75.4
91.2
97.8
100.0
White
3.6
15.1
40.1
67.9
88.2
97.0
100.0
Black
21.0
53.0
78.3
92.3
99.0
100.0
100.0
Hispanic
10.8
35.0
65.2
85.5
95.7
99.2
99.9
Asian
2.2
7.6
23.2
46.8
74.9
91.0
100.0
Multiracial
3.0
23.0
52.6
75.9
92.3
97.1
100.0
Cumulative: Top Down
OECD average
100.0
92.0
77.0
54.5
30.8
12.6
3.3
U.S. average
100.0
92.0
74.2
47.9
24.6
8.8
2.2
White
100.0
96.4
84.9
59.9
32.1
11.8
3.0
Black
100.0
79.0
47.0
21.7
7.7
1.0
0.0
Hispanic
99.9
89.1
64.9
34.7
14.4
4.2
0.7
Asian
100.0
97.8
92.4
76.8
53.2
25.1
9.0
Multiracial
100.0
94.1
77.0
47.4
24.1
7.7
0.0

Tech note: I imputed Asian and Multiracial percentages below Level I and Multiracial percentage in Level 6, which were left out of report due to small samples sizes. 

For more postings devoted to analyzing PISA scores, click the Labels: PISA below. 

Pisa Day: Test fever causes low Asian fertility

In the Telegraph:
OECD educational report: Pisa fever is causing east Asia's demographic collapse 
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard Politics and society Last updated: December 3rd, 2013 
Britain's poor scores in the Pisa education league are of course shameful. We should be doing as well as the Netherlands, our close cultural kin. 
But before we all flagellate ourselves – let alone think of copying the Shanghai success formula – just remember one thing. There is a body of scholarship showing that the collapse of the fertility rate to dangerously low levels across east Asia is the direct consequence of school cramming and "education fever".
This is well-known to demographers and those who follow the Far East closely, but less known in the West. This paper for example on Korea: 
In this paper we argue that East Asia’s ultra-low fertility rates can be partially explained by the steadfast parental drive to have competitive and successful children… 
Obsession with education in Korea has become an integral part of contemporary Korean culture and affects all aspects of social life. Deeply rooted Confucian values stress education as the best way for achieving high social status and economic prosperity. A collapse of the hierarchical social class system coupled with egalitarian ideas from the West have created the notion that any Korean child can achieve personal advancement, economic prosperity, and social mobility through education. Korean parents widely recognise this and see it as their duty to provide their children with the proper educational resources and support in order to produce successful and competitive children. In the mid-1970s as part of their family planning project, even the Korean government adopted the notion of “quality over quantity” with colourful and creative “population propaganda” exclaiming: “Daughter or son, let's not think about which. Just have two and raise them well”. 
The CIA World FactBook says fertility rates have fallen to: Hong Kong (1.04), Singapore (1.10), Taiwan (1.15), Japan (1.20), Korea (1.22). These figures may be a little too low. Japan and Singapore have seen a small bounce lately.

... Since Asia's demographic crisis is a much bigger threat to economic development and social stability than a few points here or there on the Pisa rankings, you really have to wonder whether we should be worshipping at this altar. I strongly suspect that the whole Pisa initiative will be discredited over the next decade, and may perhaps be viewed as extremely foolish.

Now, if we could just induce a Quality Over Quantity mindset in Mali ...

For more postings devoted to analyzing PISA scores, click the Labels: PISA below. 

PISA day

Scores have been released for the 2012 PISA tests of most of the rich OECD countries and some poorer countries. North East Asians on top as usual, then Europeans, then various kinds of Third Worlders. The 2012 test emphasizes Math, while 2009 emphasizes Reading in which the U.S. scores well, so the U.S. is trailing most Western Europeans and appears to have regressed back toward its long term mean after a high-scoring 2009. Finland fell back to Earth after a long spell on top of Europe.

One interesting is on p. 10-11 which gives math scores for some subregions of various countries, such as Massachusetts, Connecticut and Florida in the U.S. (No surprises there in terms of rank order of those three states.) Also broken out are Australia, Italy, Spain (isn't Extremadura the coolest name?), Mexico, and Brazil. 

The Italian results are pretty funny. The top four are Trento, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Veneto, and Lombardia. The bottom scorers are names familiar from gangster movies: Campania (Naples), Sicilia, and Calabria (the toe of the boot).

The highest scoring Mexican state is Aguascaliente in north-central Mexico. From Wikipedia:
More than two thirds of the local population of Aguascalientes is 78% European descent, mostly Spanish and French with settlement of French troops in the Valley of Huajucar during the Second Mexican Empire. Many Hidrocalidos trace their lineage back to Germany and the Netherlands, due to the settlement of various Mennonite communities, but also Italian, Russian, Polish, Swedish, German, Greek, and Romanian due to the high number of refugees who came to the state during World War II, 19% mestizo (mixed Amerindian-European), 2% Asian (mostly Japanese and Korean due to the rapid growth in Nissan production with the opening of a new factory in the state. .[10]

Second place in Mexico was Nuevo Leon (Monterrey). From Wikipedia:
Regarding ethnicity, the state has one of the highest white populations, a trend very apparent in Mexico's northern region. The majority of the people within the state are of Spanish, French, or German descent. Mestizos are also dominant in the state.

Third was Jalisco (Guadalajara).

Lowest scoring Mexican state is Guerrero on the Pacific (Acapulco), which has a high-proportion of non-Spanish speaking Indios.

For more postings devoted to analyzing PISA scores, click the Labels: PISA below.