Wealthy Suburban Schools: Only Mediocre by International Standards

[MisterK]

<p>Upper-middle class suburb here, 72%/86%. Perfectly fine apartments for rent as low as $600/month. Not sure that we would qualify as a “wealthy suburban district.”</p>

[OhioMom3000]

<p>The discrepancies between school districts are disturbing, but that’s not exactly news. I take issue with the premise that “Wealthy Suburban School Districts Are Only Mediocre by International Standards”.</p>

[barrons]

<p>I believe many scores from other countries are HIGHLY suspect. Cheating is rampant.
Just one example. Cheating in classroom administered tests is even worse.</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/02/world/asia/02japan.html[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/02/world/asia/02japan.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

[robyrm2]

<p>Today was day 2/4 of the PSLE (Primary School Leaving Examination) in Singapore. This exam, taken towards the end of Grade 6- determines the secondary education and ultimately for most the tertiary education of all students here. For this exam, students have generally been studying 2-3 extra hours per day for the past 2+ years. Parents quit jobs to supervise their children studying for the exams. Parents take days off of work during the exam. They need to be available to bring food or a panadol to their child at a moment’s notice. The schools close for several days after the exams, so the exams can be scored. So much emphasis is placed on this exam, that in wealthier schools the ONLY floors which are air conditioned are the administration (of course) and the floor with the Primary 6 students. </p>

<p>Children 7 years of age are tested every other month in preparation for an ever increasing testing schedule over time. Parents spend, on average 2-4,000 dollars Sing (equivalent to 1600-3200 US) per MONTH for extra tutoring for their children.</p>

<p>Don’t guess for a minute the children here are brighter or more talented or more inherently able. They simply have parents who see no other alternative. There is no miracle in this, and, at least in Singapore, the results are not due to a better educational system. Every book store here primarily sells the workbooks which parents and tutors routinely use to preview work with children and to give them extra homework… in case the school does not give enough. Kids drill and drill and drill until there are simply no more books to complete. </p>

<p>The government in Singapore has a big problem. Guess what-- no one wants to have children here and the declining birth rate (currently less than 1.0) is jeopardizing the growth of the country. Can’t imagine why… doesn’t this all sound like a lot of fun?</p>

<p>I can assure you that what goes on here goes on in most Asian countries, at least…</p>

[calimami]

<p>yeah, but the food in singapore is outrageously good!!!</p>

[overseas]

<p>Quality of education and test results…different paths? Dr. Ken Robinson may say yes.</p>

[robyrm2]

<p>Calimami,
No one who makes food in Singapore (who is Singaporean) did well on their PSLE…
But, the food is yummy!</p>

[Wildwood11]

<p>barrons, that kind of cheating goes on just as much in the U.S.–see latest Great Neck scandal thread, and Atlanta’s district-wide NCLB mess. Cheating is rampant at the high school level in the U.S., according to student surveys, and who knows how many kids get away with some form of it on standardized tests. You can’t dismiss all those better results from abroad because of a few bad apples. Most education professionals do what they can to prevent and punish such behavior, as the Japan incident cited in the article indicates.</p>

[barrons]

<p>I disagree. Cheating as in the Atlanta case is typical across many of the countries. It is not typical here to that degree–especially in better districts. Most wide scale cheating in the US is in poor school districts.</p>

[Wildwood11]

<p>^I do believe teacher-involved cheating is rare, but do you have any empirical evidence that it is more widespread abroad? And are you so sure that it wouldn’t go on in wealthy districts in the U.S. where the pressure to produce high achievers is intense? There are lots of anecdotal scandals that make the news but you would have to show some hard statistical evidence to attribute a significant increase in performance in other countries to cheating. Robyrm2’s post is an anecdotal example of how hard kids work to prepare for testing in some places.</p>

[barrons]

<p>[Students</a> Cheating in Schools in China, Reach All-Time High | China News | Epoch Times](<a href=“The Epoch Times - Truth & Tradition. Fact Based. Unbiased. Accurate News”>The Epoch Times - Truth & Tradition. Fact Based. Unbiased. Accurate News)</p>

<p><a href=“http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-01-06/mumbai/28372598_1_state-board-ssc-and-hsc-holy-family-school[/url]”>http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-01-06/mumbai/28372598_1_state-board-ssc-and-hsc-holy-family-school&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p><a href=“http://itsthefinalword.blogspot.com/2006/07/cheating.html[/url]”>http://itsthefinalword.blogspot.com/2006/07/cheating.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

[Wildwood11]

<p>

Statistics show that academic cheating among high-school and college students has risen dramatically during the past 50 years. The results of the 29th Who’s Who Among American High School Students Poll (of 3,123 high-achieving 16- to 18-year olds – that is, students with A or B averages who plan to attend college after graduation) were released in November, 1998. Among the findings:</p>

<p>80% of the country’s best students cheated to get to the top of their class.
More than half the students surveyed said that they don’t think cheating is a big deal.
95% of cheaters say they were not caught.
40% cheated on a quiz or a test
67% copied someone else’s homework

</p>

<p>[Cheating</a> Backgrounder - RESEARCH CENTER - Cheating Is A Personal Foul](<a href=“http://www.glass-castle.com/clients/www-nocheating-org/adcouncil/research/cheatingbackgrounder.html]Cheating”>Cheating Backgrounder - RESEARCH CENTER - Cheating Is A Personal Foul)</p>

<p>

Professors at the forefront of the cheating war say they have had to scramble to catch up to youngsters who have proved brilliant at using new technology to get A’s without studying. There are hundreds of websites that offer custom-written papers. YouTube has dozens of student-made videos teaching how, for example, to scan a Coke bottle label into a computer, replace the nutrition information with physics notes, and paste the label back onto a bottle to create a cheat aid unlikely to be caught by teachers. And students say it is easy to load notes into cellphones or programmable calculators and sneak peeks at the devices during tests. Some say they’ve used their devices’ infrared, Bluetooth, or texting capabilities to share information with other test takers.</p>

<p>A recent Ohio State University graduate said he often walked into tests with three calculators in his backpack so that he could turn one in if the professor tried to crack down by asking students to turn in their calculators. He said other students hid powerful calculators in the bodies of old, basic ones that are permitted in exams.</p>

<p>“Cheating is super easy now. College classes are way too big, and you can pull out anything on your desk,” he says. And it is widespread, he says, because students are busy, hungry for good grades, and often skeptical of the lifetime benefit of learning what many professors put on tests. The student, who worked nearly full-time during school, said it took him only an hour or so to program his calculator with notes. That saved him as much as 20 hours of study time. “I don’t really consider what I did cheating…because in the real world I would be using that device…I see that as just being more efficient.”

</p>

<p>[Professors</a> Use Technology to Fight Student Cheating - US News and World Report](<a href=“http://www.usnews.com/education/articles/2008/10/03/professors-use-technology-to-fight-student-cheating]Professors”>http://www.usnews.com/education/articles/2008/10/03/professors-use-technology-to-fight-student-cheating)</p>

<p>

Academic dishonesty is endemic in all levels of education.[citation needed] In the United States, studies show that 20% of students started cheating in the first grade.[5] Similarly, other studies reveal that currently in the U.S., 56% of middle school students and 70% of high school students have cheated.[6]</p>

<p>Students are not the only ones to cheat in an academic setting. A study among North Carolina school teachers found that some 35 percent of respondents said they had witnessed their colleagues cheating in one form or another. The rise of high-stakes testing and the consequences of the results on the teacher is cited as a reason why a teacher might want to inflate the results of their students.[7]

</p>

<p>[Academic</a> dishonesty - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_dishonesty]Academic”>Academic dishonesty - Wikipedia)</p>

<p>

According to surveys in U.S. News and World Report:</p>

<p>80% of “high-achieving” high school students admit to cheating.
51% of high school students did not believe cheating was wrong.
95% of cheating high school students said that they had not been detected.
75% of college students admitted cheating, and 90% of college students didn’t believe cheaters would be caught.
Almost 85% of college students said cheating was necessary to get ahead.

</p>

<p>[Resources</a> > Cheating Statistics](<a href=“http://www.caveon.com/resources/cheating_statistics.htm]Resources”>http://www.caveon.com/resources/cheating_statistics.htm)</p>

[barrons]

<p>The question is not do people cheat. It is cheating on major protored national exams like the Iowa Tests, SAT etc.</p>

[Wildwood11]

<p>^Okay, but given the environment, I don’t think you can say with certainty that it goes on more in other countries than in the U.S. Most educators everywhere have an interest in getting real, objective information on how their students are doing. Obviously, there are some dishonest ones everywhere.</p>

[JHS]

<p>Our best local district, Lower Merion, comes in at 90% of Singapore in math (i.e., 45 score) and 140% (70) in reading. I can live with that. It’s not embarrassing at all. Of course, the city of Philadelphia as a whole is terrible, but that’s not news to anyone. Within the district, it’s completely possible to have Lower Merion-quality education if you want it.</p>

[Shrinkrap]

<p>“To be included in this comparison group, countries had to have a 2007 per capita gross domestic product (GDP) of at least $24,000 and a population of at least 2 million, not be a member of OPEC, and have test results from PISA.”</p>

<p>Why were OPEC nations excluded from the original study?</p>

<p>“Of the 25 countries that met these criteria (among them Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, Spain, Taiwan, and United Kingdom) 23 had per-capita GDPs that significantly trailed the $45,597 of the U.S.”</p>

[Wildwood11]

<p>^I think the point was to compare results among developed countries. OPEC countries are not defined that way despite their high oil-based GDP.</p>

[Shrinkrap]

<p>I see. How do you think “developed” is defined?</p>

<p>NVM. I see there are a variety of metrics.</p>

<p>"The UN HDI is a statistical measure that gauges a country’s level of human development. While there is a strong correlation between having a high HDI score and a prosperous economy, the UN points out that the HDI accounts for more than income or productivity. Unlike GDP per capita or per capita income, the HDI takes into account how income is turned “into education and health opportunities and therefore into higher levels of human development.”</p>

[skrlvr]

<p>I think we need to be careful in looking at these results. I am not able to link to the article itself, only the press release, so I’m not sure exactly the criteria for a ‘wealthy suburban’ district.</p>

<p>I did a little poking around my metropolitan area with the ‘Global Report Card’ and looked at other factors, such as household income, housing values, students in free lunch, etc.</p>

<p>So for my metropolitan area, the numbers are as follows</p>

<p>The City school system:</p>

<p>16% in Math
28% in Reading</p>

<p>household income: 30K
house value: 87K
students receiving free lunch: 86%</p>

<p>Suburb #1</p>

<p>81% in Math
86% in Reading</p>

<p>household income: 124K
house value: 544K
students receiving free lunch: 0%</p>

<p>Suburb#2</p>

<p>57% in Math
73% in Reading</p>

<p>household income: 78K
house value: 320K
students receiving free lunch: 6.4%</p>

<p>Suburb #3</p>

<p>42% in Math
62% in Reading</p>

<p>household income: 74K
house value: 274K
students receiving free lunch: 19.2%</p>

<p>So there’s a fairly good correlation here between income, house value, free lunch and test scores. No real surprise there.</p>

<p>Suburb #1 outperforms most internationals, as expected given its very high income. No mediocrity here in the wealthiest district.</p>

<p>What is interesting is the difference between Suburb #2 and Suburb #3. They have very similar household incomes, but the difference in test scores is much different than the difference in household income. Suburb #3 is about 94% of Suburb #2’s income, but Suburb #3’s math test score is 74% of Suburb #2’s score.</p>

<p>When you look at the difference in free lunch, there’s another surprise. Again, the household income is close, but the difference in free lunch is much different–the percentage of students with free lunch is three times in Suburb #3 than Suburb #2. </p>

<p>Might this difference in free lunch at least explain some of the difference in test scores? </p>

<p>If so, this might suggest that we do a poor job of educating students in poverty, whether they are in an overall wealthy suburban district or in a poor inner city district.</p>

[turbo93]

<p>

Let me see, 1% of 28000 is, oh, about 500-600.

</p>

<p>That’s why you should not trust me with math :-)</p>

<p>In the Newsweek list we were around the middle out of 500 ‘top’ schools, Silver in the US News, and there was one ranking that was out of 28000 or so and we ended up around 500th-600th. </p>

<p>Having said this, the school’s math and science program is quite a bit more difficult than others in the state, and that includes preps, privates, parochials, and the like.</p>