Wealthy Suburban Schools: Only Mediocre by International Standards

[xiggi]

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Yeah, why critically look at the studies to try to understand…what is really going on?

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<p>Well, looking critically at the study (not the media article) is paramount to understand. Most reasonable studies will explain the methodology used. In this case, the researchers added an preliminary “rebuttal” to possible (read expected) criticisms. Fwiw, this is common grounds for a special type of researchers who tend to rock the “establishment” and go against the powerful forces of the education world. </p>

<p>But here is the point. We do not have to slug through dozens or hundreds of accounts that read “My school is 80/90 and is better than those foreigners” … the study told us that 820 schools are above the 67th percentile. See below for a previous quotation.</p>

<p>So, yes, it would be totally expected for CC to have dozens of pages of similar posts (especially on CC) but none of them would belie the conclusions of the study. </p>

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In total, only 820 of the 13,636 public-school districts for which we have 2007 math results had average student achievement that would be among the top third of student performance in other developed countries. That is, 94 percent of all U.S. school districts have average math achievement below the 67th percentile. There aren’t that many truly excellent districts out there.</p>

<p>Of the 13,636 districts, 9,339, or 68 percent, have average student math achievement that is below the 50th percentile compared with that of the average student in other developed countries. Most of our large school districts are well below the 50th percentile. This is especially alarming, because these lower-performing large districts comprise a much greater share of the total student population than do the relatively small higher-performing districts.

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