National Report Card
The Global Report Card
George W. Bush
Presidential Center
Be Sure to Visit: http://globalreportcard.org/map.html
How do Ohio districts’ performance compare to international peers?
By Matthew Kyle
The George W. Bush Presidential Center (in Dallas) recently released data on international student achievement in both reading and math, which you can peruse in an interactive tool, the Global Report Card. The report card compares 2007 math and reading achievement levels between districts across the nation and 25 developed nations. The tool does not adjust for differences in race, socioeconomic status, or other classifications; however, the tool is still useful to get an idea of how our nation’s students measure up against their future global competition.
How does Ohio fare? In short, Ohio’s major city school districts don’t stack up well at all against their international counterparts.
Among the eight districts, Akron Public Schools had the best showing, ranking in the 28th percentile in math and the 41st percentile in reading. Dayton Public Schools and Youngstown City Schools struggled even more by comparison. Both cities ranked in the bottom 15 percent in math while ranking in the 24th and 25th percentiles respectively in reading. Chart 1 shows how Ohio’s major urban districts fared in comparison to their international counterparts.
Chart 1: International achievement benchmarking of Ohio’s “Big 8” districts
Source: The Global Report Card, George W. Bush Presidential Center
What is more concerning is that these numbers improve (significantly in math) when these districts are measured against just the rest of the United States, meaning the country as a whole is continuing to fall behind other developed nations. This is largely due to the fact that many wealthier suburban school districts are not doing too well either. Chart 2 depicts examples of some of the high-wealth, high-performing suburban districts surrounding Ohio’s big cities and how they compare to their international counterparts.
Chart 2: International achievement benchmarking of select suburban Ohio districts
Source: The Global Report Card, George W. Bush Presidential Center
Considering that most of these districts are among the highest performing districts in their area, the numbers are rather unimpressive. Not one of these top-end schools ranks even in the top 20 percent in math achievement, and only one district (Ottawa Hills) is barely in the top ten percent in reading achievement.
After examining these figures, it is evident that not only are Ohio city school systems falling by the way-side, but the best public alternatives in the state are struggling to keep pace internationally, especially in mathematics. Despite knowing U.S. schools have been falling behind other nations for some time, academic improvement is still proving to be elusive. In an age of globalization and increased worldwide competition these numbers combined with lackluster improvement paint a bleak picture for our future. Not to be redundant, but if the United States wishes to maintain a sense of global economic and political superiority then we still have work to do.
This analysis originally appeared on Flypaper, Fordham’s blog.
==========================
Ever wonder how your public school district stacks up when compared to the rest of the world? What about how your district compares to your state or even the nation?
Historical View
District
Performance
2004 – 2007 Results
| Dist. vs Intl | Dist. vs Intl | Dist. vs the Nation | Dist. vs the Nation | Dist vs. State | Dist vs. State | |||
| Math | Reading | Math
|
Reading | Math | Reading | |||
| All in % | ||||||||
| Indian Hill | 73% | 79% | 83% | 81% | 78% | 75% | ||
| Sycamore | 71 | 80 | 81 | 82 | 77 | 77 | ||
| Deer Park | 58 | 66 | 70 | 68 | 64 | 61 | ||
| Wyoming | 82% | 91% | 89% | 91% | 86% | 88% | ||
| CPS | 24 | 32 | 35 | 34 | 29 | 27 | ||
| Finneytown | 45 | 58 | 58 | 61 | 52 | 53 | ||
| Fairfield | 50 | 62 | 63 | 64 | 57 | 57 | ||
| Loveland | 70 | 80 | 80 | 81 | 76 | 76 | ||
| Harrison | 38 | 54 | 50 | 57 | 44 | 49 | ||
| Madeira | 70 | 84 | 80 | 85 | 76 | 80 | ||
| Mariemont | 68 | 80 | 79 | 82 | 74 | 76 | ||
| Princeton | 44 | 54 | 56 | 56 | 50 | 49 | ||
| Forest Hills | 72 | 81 | 82 | 83 | 77 | 78 | ||
| Mason | 80% | 86% | 88% | 87% | 85% | 83% | ||
| Springboro | 67 | 79 | 78 | 81 | 73 | 76 | ||
| Lebanon | 60 | 68 | 72 | 70 | 60 | 64 | ||
| Lakota | 61 | 74 | 73 | 76 | 67 | 70 | ||
| Ross | 61 | 67 | 72 | 69 | 67 | 62 | ||
| Chagrin Fal | 78 | 89 | 87 | 90 | 83 | 87 | ||
| Oakland cty | 75% | 88% | 84% | 89% | 80% | 85% | ||
| Forest Hills | 72% | 81% | 82% | 83% | 77% | 78% |
The GRC score indicates the level of math or reading achievement by the average student in a public school district compared to student achievement in a set of 25 developed countries. The score represents the percentage of students in the international group who would have a lower level of achievement. For example, a percentile of 60 means the average student in a school district would perform better than 60% of the students in the international group.
Questions for Education Leaders
The Global Report Card compares student performance in the United States to student performance in 25 other countries. The GRC does this by allowing readers to compare results in math and reading in nearly every district in the U.S. to average performance of foreign students.
The data shows that not one of the 20 largest U.S. school districts ranked above the 50th percentile in math compared to other developed countries.
The data also shows that even the most elite suburban public school districts in the United States produce mediocre results. Our best school districts appear to perform well when compared to failing urban districts, but when compared to foreign countries our elite schools are often falling short in preparing students to compete in a global economy.
Once you’ve reviewed the data, you may want to talk about the results with others in your community, school district or state. We’ve provided a few questions that might help you start such a conversation:
- 1) Are our schools performing at an acceptable level?
- 2) Given the results shown on the Global Report Card, are our students prepared to compete in the global economy?
- 3) What are the areas of success in our district?
- 4) What can our schools do to improve their performance and ensure they graduate students who lead the world in academic achievement?
You forgot to mention our schools being severely below par with the rest of the world. Seriously, look at the chart of the world’s education. One tidbit you forgot to mention is countries like the Ukraine have a better education system than us, we’re not doing enough to keep our kids competitive with the world market and in the end we WILL lose by becoming a third world country.
“US students are lagging in math” By Walter Williams, The Enquirer 2/226/12 F3 (Walter Williams: Math matters in US competitiveness Feb. 23, 2012)
.
If one manages to graduate from high school without the rudiments of algebra, geometry and trigonometry, there are certain relatively high-paying careers probably off-limits for life — such as careers in architecture, chemistry, computer programming, engineering, medicine and certain technical fields. For example, one might meet all of the physical requirements to be a fighter pilot, but he’s grounded if he doesn’t have enough math to understand physics, aerodynamics and navigation.
Mathematical ability helps provide the disciplined structure that helps people to think, speak and write more clearly. In general, mathematics is an excellent foundation and prerequisite for study in all areas of science and engineering. So where do U.S. youngsters stand in math?
.
Drs. Eric Hanushek and Paul Peterson, senior fellows at the Hoover Institution, looked at the performance of our youngsters compared with their counterparts in other nations, in their Newsweek article, “Why Can’t American Students Compete?” reprinted under the title “Math Matters” in the Hoover Digest. In the latest international tests administered by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, only 32 percent of U.S. students ranked proficient in math – coming in between Portugal and Italy but far behind South Korea, Finland, Canada and the Netherlands. U.S. students couldn’t hold a finger to the 75 percent of Shanghai students who tested proficient.
.
What about our brightest? It turns out that only 7 percent of U.S. students perform at the advanced level in math. Forty-five percent of the students in Shanghai are advanced in math, compared with 20 percent in South Korea and Switzerland and 15 percent of students in Japan, Belgium, Finland, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Canada.
.
Hanushek and Peterson find one bright spot among our young people. That’s Asian-American students, 52 percent of whom perform at the proficient level or higher. Among white students, only 42 percent perform math at a proficient level. The math performance of black and Hispanic students is a disaster, with only 11 and 15 percent, respectively, performing math at the proficient level or higher.
.
The National Center for Education Statistics revealed some of the results of American innumeracy. Among advanced degrees in engineering awarded at U.S. universities during the 2007-08 academic year, 28 percent went to whites; 2 percent went to blacks; 2 percent went to Hispanics; and 61 percent went to foreigners. Of the advanced degrees in mathematics, 40 percent went to whites; 2 percent went to blacks; 5 percent went to Hispanics; and 50 percent went to foreigners. For advanced degrees in education, 65 percent went to whites; 17 percent went to blacks; 5 percent went to Hispanics; and 8 percent went to foreigners. The pattern is apparent. The more rigorous a subject area the higher the percentage of foreigners — and the lower the percentage of Americans — earning advanced degrees. In subject areas such as education, which have little or no rigor, Americans are likelier — and foreigners are less likely — to earn advanced degrees.
.
In a New York Times article — “Do We Need Foreign Technology Workers?” — Dr. Vivek Wadhwa of the Pratt School of Engineering at Duke University said “that 47 percent of all U.S. science and engineering workers with doctorates are immigrants, as were 67 percent of the additions to the U.S. science and engineering work force between 1995 to 2006. And roughly 60 percent of engineering Ph.D. students and 40 percent of master’s students are foreign nationals.”
American mathematics proficiency levels leave a lot to be desired if we’re to maintain competitiveness. For blacks and Hispanics, it’s a tragedy with little prospect for change, but the solution is not rocket science. During my tenure as a member of Temple University’s faculty in the 1970s, I tutored black students in math.
.
When they complained that math was too difficult, I told them that if they spent as much time practicing math as they did practicing jump shots, they’d be just as good at math as they were at basketball. The same message of hard work and discipline applies to all students, but someone must demand it.
Walter E. Williams is a professor of economics at George Mason University.
THE NATION’S REPORT CARD
The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is the largest continuing and nationally representative assessment of what our nation’s students know and can do in core subjects. NAEP is a congressionally mandated project administered by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), within the Institute of Education Statistics (IES) of the U.S. Department of Education. The National Assessment Governing Board, appointed by the U.S. Secretary of Education but independent of the Department, sets policy for NAEP and is responsible for developing the framework and test specifications. The Governing Board is a bipartisan group whose members include governors, state legislators, local and state school officials, educators, business representatives, and members of the general public. Congress created the 26-member Governing Board in 1988.
NAEP results are designed to provide data on student achievement in various subjects, and are released as The Nation’s Report Card. There are no results for individual students, classrooms, or schools. NAEP reports results for different demographic groups, including gender, socioeconomic status, and race/ethnicity. Assessments are given most frequently in mathematics, reading, science and writing. Other subjects such as the arts, civics, economics, geography, and U.S. history are assessed periodically.
In addition to assessing student achievement in various subjects, NAEP also collects information from students, teachers, and schools to help provide contextual information about the assessments and factors that may be related to students’ learning.
Teachers, principals, parents, policymakers, and researchers all use NAEP results to assess student progress across the country and develop ways to improve education in the United States. NAEP is a trusted resource and has been providing valid and reliable data on student performance since 1969.
NAEP uses a carefully designed sampling procedure that allows the assessment to be representative of the geographical, racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic diversity of the schools and students in the United States. Since NAEP assessments are administered uniformly to all participating students using the same test booklets and identical procedures across the nation, NAEP results serve as a common metric for states and the urban districts that participate in the assessment.
There are two NAEP websites: the NCES NAEP website and The Nation’s Report Card website. The first site details NAEP program holistically, while the second focuses primarily on the individual releases of data
Source: Wikipedia 2/26/12
District vs. International Education Achievement Percentile Ranking Percentile
Ranking
District Math Reading
Akron 28 … 41
Canton 29 … 38
Cincinnati 24 … 32
Cleveland 18 30
Columbus 23 31
Dayton 15 24
Toledo 20 32
Youngstown 15 25
North Canton 68 80
Mariemont 68 80
Loveland 70 80
Sycamore 71 80
Poland 70 84
Indian Hill 73 79
Madeira 70 84
Upper Arlington 74 80
Hudson (Akron) 74 84
Oakwood 75 88
Chagrin Falls 78 89
Mason 80 86
Ottawa Hills 78 91
Wyoming 82 91
US Academic Performance
Continues to Fall Behind Other Nations
.
Ohio’s major city school districts don’t stack up well at all against their international counterparts.
.
…the country as a whole is continuing to fall behind other developed nations. This is largely due to the fact that many wealthier suburban school districts are not doing too well either. A chart depicts examples of some of the high-wealth, high-performing suburban districts surrounding Ohio’s big cities and how they compare to their international counterparts.
.
Considering that most of these districts are among the highest performing districts in their area, the numbers are rather unimpressive. Not one of these top-end schools ranks even in the top 20 percent in math achievement, and only one district (Ottawa Hills) is barely in the top ten percent in reading achievement.
.
After examining these figures, it is evident that not only are Ohio city school systems falling by the way-side, but the best public alternatives in the state are struggling to keep pace internationally, especially in mathematics. Despite knowing U.S. schools have been falling behind other nations for some time, academic improvement is still proving to be elusive. In an age of globalization and increased worldwide competition these numbers combined with lackluster improvement paint a bleak picture for our future. Not to be redundant, but if the United States wishes to maintain a sense of global economic and political superiority then we still have work to do.
.
Source: Excerpts of this analysis originally appeared on OhioFlypaper October 7, 2011, Fordham’s blog. “How do Ohio’s low-and high-performing districts compare to international peers?”By Matthew Kyle http://globalreportcard.org/map.html
Sam (Marilyn) Trabout (8100 San Marco Ct Madeira) posted an idea in the Enquirer about what to do regarding the nations poor math and science performance. This adm. invited Sam to post comments here.