Latest Exams Say Something Definitive: There's Little That's Definitive

Neal McCluskeyI dread the release of national standardized test scores because there is always big pressure to pull something out of them and declare, as quickly as possible, that they show your favorite reform works. In my younger days I ’m sure I succumbed. But as time has gone on, I’ve concluded that any given year’s big release is just one year of new data from which nothing can be definitively determined aboutwhy scores have moved as they have. There are simply too many variables at play, from family wealth, to spending, to school choice, to whatany given test asks, to conclude very much. So I hope you ’ll bear with me while I throw all that out the window. The latest scores from the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA)do reveal something conclusive: It ’s dangerous to look at one country and declare “We allmust do what they do! ”Finland, I ’m looking—or no longer looking—at you.After the Finns ranked among traditionally top, typically East Asian, countries in the 2001 PISA —a test of 15-year-olds containing reading, mathematics, and science portions—and replicated that a few more times, a veritable cottage industry arose declaring that the United States, and everyone else, should copy Finland. Google “Finnish miracle education” and your search results will ove rflow. Because Finland did so well, education analystsconfidently proclaimed the need for fewer standardized tests, light-touch national standards, more teacher autonomy,...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs