Dear Readers,
I am not ready to post today because I am still working to find important information that I want to write about. Over the past week I have been reading articles to help me understand why American students have consistently scored lower on international tests than students in other countries. I am not ready to accept the assumption that our children are lazy, stupid, or just poorly taught by their schools. And I certainly do not want to accept the decision of many of our politicians that our schools need to improve drastically in various areas.
Because I still need to read more articles, judge their’s validity, and—I hope— get some help from you readers, I expect to be able to post a piece about what I’ve learned a week from today. Any help from readers would certainly shorten the time needed and improve the quality of my writing.
Sincerely,
Joanne The Treasure Hunter
The Treasure Hunter 
See anything by Dylan Willam or Sandra Stotsky
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Thanks. I will.
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The diversity in America is much greater than many other countries. children speak many languages and there is a large number of children in poverty. The U.S, comes out way ahead if you only factor in children in upper income brackets whose native tongue is English.
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Thanks, Steve.
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The role of socioeconomics is inescapable. Several years ago an article appeared in Educational Researcher did international comparisons showing that average test score performance is lower when there is greater income disparity between wealthier and poorer families. The United States had the greatest degree of disparity, thus lower average scores. Much of learning happens outside school, and more prosperous children have greater access to more learning possibilities such as books in the home, parents who read to them, visits to libraries, etc. I once did a disaggregation of test scores based on ethnicity and socioeconimc status. Actually, I analyzed data from at least two school districts, and the results were very consistent. Students who were not on free or reduced lunch, were not in ethnic minorities, and were not limited in English, outscored students who had any one of those factors. The results held in every performance category: Did Not Meet Standard, Met Standard, and Exceeded Standard. Maybe I have those analyses somewhere. I can look.
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I understand and agree. But aren’t there also poor kids in the rest of the world? Isn’t there any study of students in Europe and other places?
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