In a message dated 7/21/2007 12:44:17 PM Eastern Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
However, there is a problem with reading in our country. Here is a response to that from Jerry Bracey. I believe David Berliner has written something with similar findings. This is the link to listen to the disscussion on NPR with Susan Ohanian that Renee referred to. www.wbur.org. Also keep in mind that these scores for the US include ALL children. THE EDUCATION TRUST’S DISINFORMATION CAMPAIGN YOU CAN’T TRUST THE EDUCATION TRUST Gerald W. Bracey There appears to be no level of dishonesty to which the Education Trust will not sink in propagating its agenda which is right now to get No Child Left Behind reauthorized. Thursday, July 19, on “On Point,” an NPR show that comes out of WBUR, the Trust’s Amy Wilkins told host Tom Ashbrook, “Our most affluent kids are getting their lunches eaten by kids in other countries. The system we have has not served our children well. There is no point pouring more federal money into very broken bottles.” I listened to the show again this morning (July 20) and assure you the quote is accurate and that it is not taken out of context. Anyone can find it at www.wbur.org. The statement comes a little after minute 40 in the show. Leave alone for a moment if a bottle can be “very broken,” what do the results of international comparisons actually look like? Here they are for the most recent incarnations of PIRLS (Progress in International Reading Literacy Study) and TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study). I present the results for U. S. schools with fewer than 10% of students in poverty (13% of all U. S. students), 10-25% (17% of all students), 25-50% (28%), 50-75% (22%) and more than 75% (20%), interwoven with the top countries, the international average for all countries and the U. S. overall average. PIRLS Reading US 10% 589 US 10-25% 567 Sweden 562 Netherlands 554 England 553 U. S.25-50% 551 Latvia 545 U. S. overall 542 . . U. S. 50-75 519 . . Int’l avg. (35 countries) 500 U.S 75+ 489 TIMSS Math 4th Grade Singapore 594 Hong Kong 575 US 10% 567 Japan 565 Taiwan 564 Belgium 551 US 10-25% 543 Netherlands 540 Latvia 536 Lithuania 540 U. S. 25-50% 533 . . US overall 518 US 50-75% 500 Int’l avg. (25 Countries) 495 US 75%+ 471 TIMSS Science 4th grade US 10% 579 US 10-25% 567 Singapore 565 US 25-50% 551 Taiwan 551 Japan 543 Hong Kong 542 England 540 US overall 536 . . US 50-75% 519 . Int’l avg. 489 . U. S. 75%+ 480 TIMSS 8th grade results look very similar. Thus, for reading and science, the two categories of US schools with the smallest percentages of students living in poverty score higher than even the highest nation, Sweden in reading, Singapore in science. In math, the top US category would be 3rd in the world. It is only in American schools with 75% of more of their students living in poverty where scores fall below the international average. The TIMSS results are in NCES report NCES 2005-005 from the National Center for Education Statistics, U. S. Department of Education. The PIRLS results are online only at www.nces.ed.gov. Eating our kids’ lunches? ************************************** Get a sneak peek of the all-new AOL at http://discover.aol.com/memed/aolcom30tour _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive.
