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good commentary!

On Wed, Mar 20, 2013 at 11:03 AM, Alan Friedman <[log in to unmask]>wrote:

> ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
> Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related
> institutions.
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>
> Before we start rejoicing at the dramatic improvement in US student
> performance rankings as calculated by Stanford researchers, consider
> carefully what the researchers have done.  They revised the PISA data so
> that "differences in countries' social class compositions are adequately
> taken into account."  I think everyone agrees that socio-economic
> disadvantage is strongly correlated with lower performance on all the
> major assessments.  The US has a larger percentage of students with lower
> socio-economic status than many developed countries.  So the researchers
> have "taken into account" this sad situation by adjusting the scores as if
> this situation were not true.  And as a result of this adjustment, the US
> rank rises.
>
> If only the disproportionately greater share of US students in
> disadvantaged social classes could be fixed so easily.  The hard way would
> be to reduce the percentage of the disadvantaged students, for example by
> effective, large-scale programs to reduce poverty and discrimination.
>
> PISA, TIMSS, and NAEP are all designed to take representative samples of
> the population is it is, rather than how we would like it to be or as it
> would be if we leveled out the differences between populations.  The
> Stanford researchers have done a valuable service by pointing out when our
> disadvantaged populations outperform other disadvantaged populations, and
> that we have in fact lowered performance gaps in many (but not all)
> instances.  But whether their calculated re-scoring of the PISA test
> produces a more accurate and useful ranking is a matter of taste, rather
> than of repairing errors in the PISA results.
>
> Alan
> ________________________________________
> Alan J. Friedman, Ph.D.
> Consultant for Museum Development and Science Communication
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>
>
> >
>
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-- 
*See you at Fund Raising Day in New York, June 7, 2013!*

Marilyn Hoyt
110 Sixth Avenue
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914-815-0671*


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