Are Low U.S. Scores on International Tests Caused by High Child Poverty or Bad Schools?
Early in November, the NY Times published what seemed to me an inconclusive and confusingcommentary by Eduardo Porter on what is causing children in the United States to score below other developed nations on international tests of academic achievement. Porter discusses research findings of respected academics—one study by Martin Carnoy and colleagues from the education department at Stanford University and another study by Jane Waldfogel at Columbia University and international colleagues—which demonstrate that the primary cause of lower scores on international tests by American children is significantly greater childhood poverty in the United States. Porter contrasts the point of view of these researchers with the opinion of Andreas Schleicher who runs the international PISA test. Schleicher claims that PISA’s research demonstrates that American society does not really tolerate such a relatively high rate of childhood poverty at all and that the problem is located in our public schools.
Seeming unable to reconcile such contradictory views, Porter satisfies himself by calling for school improvement: “Whatever the failings of the rest of society, it still seems clear American schools can do better.” Of course we must expect schools to do the best they can and there exists a need for school improvement, but I found myself dissatisfied with Porter’s analysis. The international data that I have seen clearly demonstrate that the U.S. has far higher child poverty than the nations that outscore our children on international school achievement tests.
Then there are the decades’ of research confirming that poverty, inequality and growing residential segregation by income all affect school achievement. Most striking is the relatively recent research of Sean Reardon of Stanford University whose longitudinal data confirm the connection of school achievement gaps (among children in the United States) to growing economic inequality across the United States and to the fact that residential patterns have rapidly been segregating by income across America’s large metropolitan areas. Reardon’s research does not track international comparisons, but it conclusively connects income inequality to school achievement. Reardon documents that across America’s metropolitan areas the proportion of families living in either very poor or very affluent neighborhoods increased from 15 percent in 1970 to 33 percent by 2009, and the proportion of families living in middle income neighborhoods declined from 65 percent in 1970 to 42 percent in 2009. Reardon shows that along with growing residential inequality is a simultaneous jump in an income-inequality school achievement gap among children and adolescents. The achievement gap between students with income in the top ten percent and students with income in the bottom ten percent is 30-40 percent wider among children born in 2001 than those born in 1975.
In an analysis that speaks directly to the issue of comparative international child poverty, just Are Low U.S. Scores on International Tests Caused by High Child Poverty or Bad Schools? | janresseger: