solidaridad: Excerpts from "What international test scores really tell us: Lessons buried in PISA report"

solidaridad: Excerpts from "What international test scores really tell us: Lessons buried in PISA report"

Excerpts from "What international test scores really tell us: Lessons buried in PISA report"

by Robert D. Skeels * rdsathene

"[T]here should be no education marketplace." — Diane Ravitch (celebrated education professor and author)


Here are important excerpts from William J. Mathis' brilliant essay:

Federal and state policymakers continue to embrace reforms that have little positive effect (if not downright negative effects) while ignoring reforms that make a difference. Buried within the PISA report is an analysis of educational systems that registered high test scores. Here are some of the less-reported findings:.

• The best performing school systems manage to provide high-qualityeducation to all children.
• Students from low socio-economic backgrounds score a year behind their more affluent classmates. However, poorer students who are integrated with their more affluent classmates score strikingly higher. The difference is worth more than a year's education.
• In schools where students are required to repeat grades (such as with promotion requirements), the test