How poverty affected U.S. PISA scores
Stephen Krashen, professor emeritus at the University of Southern California, wrote the following, which was posted on the Schools Matter blog. The results of the 2009 administration of the Program for International Student Assessment, known as PISA, were released this week, and showed American 15-year-olds doing generally average in reading, science and math as compared to 65 other countries [including members and non-members of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development, which puts out PISA] and other education systems. There was angst in education circles, with calls for even more of the same kind of reforms that we've been implementing for nearly a decade (which haven't done anything to help U.S. PISA scores). Krashen takes a different look at the numbers. By Stephen Krashen “Two countries with similar levels of prosperity can produce very different results,” Ángel Gurría, the O.E.C.D. secretary general, said in a statement on Tuesday. “This shows