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

Schools that have autonomy over curriculum, finances and assessment score higher.

Students that attended pre-school score higher, even after more than 10 years.

For the 27th, government officials have yet again been surprised, shocked and dismayed over the latest international test score rankings http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/07/AR2010120701178.html . Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said, "We have to see this as a very serious wake-up call." Former Reagan education official Chester E. Finn Jr. reported that he was "kind of stunned" by the results of the Program for International Student Achievement (PISA) results. In hyperbolic overdrive, he compared the results to Pearl Harbor and Sputnik.

The PISA tests were given to 15-year-old students by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in 65 nations and educational systems. Nine had higher average scores in reading, 17 in math, and 12 in science.

While ranking nations on test scores is a pretty sorry way to evaluate education systems, there is simply no reason to expect the results to have been any better than they were the last time we heard from this same chorus of surprised, shocked and dismayed pundits and politicians.

By William J. Mathis

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