» Testing
By Bill Costello • December 18, 2010 at 5:51 AM
American students are lagging significantly behind their peers from several countries in Europe and Asia according to new results from a key international assessment. They are the furthest behind students from the Chinese city of Shanghai, who received the top international test scores in math, science, and reading.
“We have to see this as a wake-up [...]
By Bill Costello • September 6, 2010 at 4:43 AM
American spending on public education, adjusted for inflation, has more than doubled over the last three decades. What did taxpayers get for their money?
The average math and reading scores of American 17-year-olds have not improved since the early 1970s according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress.
Twice the money. Zero progress.
Yet students in other countries have [...]
By Bill Costello • April 23, 2010 at 1:52 AM
Bill Costello visits the National Museum in Phnom Penh.
By Bill Costello • February 8, 2010 at 1:19 AM
The South Korean education system produces students with some of the world’s highest test scores in math and science. According to the most recent Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, their eighth graders ranked second in math performance when compared with international peers from 58 countries. In science, they ranked fourth.
By Bill Costello • January 13, 2010 at 1:00 AM
Singapore students are among the best in the world at math according to the results of the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS).
First administered in 1995, the TIMMS has assessed the science and math performance of fourth- and eighth-grade students from several countries every four years.
In 1995, 1999, and 2003, Singapore students in [...]
By Bill Costello • December 21, 2009 at 3:47 AM
According to the most recent Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), the world’s best fourth-grade math students were from Hong Kong. Here are the top five performers: Hong Kong SAR (607), Singapore (599), Chinese Taipei (576), Japan (568), and Kazakhstan (549).
In eighth-grade, students from Hong Kong were the world’s fourth best in math. [...]
By Bill Costello • December 20, 2009 at 2:15 AM
A new study by the American Institutes for Research compared the math performance of third graders from the highest performing country (Hong Kong) with their peers from the highest performing state (Massachusetts).
It concluded that “exposure, in Hong Kong, to mathematics problems that are computationally more difficult and/or cognitively more complex than those in Massachusetts at [...]
By Bill Costello • November 2, 2009 at 1:16 AM
Public schools in Pittsburgh—like most U.S. public schools—are failing to prepare students to compete in the increasingly global economy.
One-third of high school graduates from the Pittsburgh region lack proficiency in basic reading and math skills.
Harold D. Miller, adjunct professor of public policy and management at Carnegie Mellon University, writes:
We wouldn’t expect a business to thrive if one-third [...]
By Bill Costello • October 27, 2009 at 1:38 AM
The U.S. is falling behind the world in math. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said, “We are lagging the rest of the world, and we are lagging it in pretty substantial ways.”
A special analysis put out by the National Center for Education Statistics found that the math performance of U.S. high schoolers was in the [...]
By Bill Costello • October 23, 2009 at 12:15 AM
Recently I was invited to observe classes at two public elementary schools in Taiwan: Dan Fong Elementary School and Affiliated Experimental Elementary School of Taipei Municipal University of Education (ESTMUE).
Dan Fong Elementary is located in Taipei County. With more than 2,000 students, it’s considered a middle-sized elementary school in Taiwan.
Some Taiwanese elementary schools—such as Kuanghua [...]
By Bill Costello • October 21, 2009 at 6:24 AM
The good news is that reading scores for 9- and 13-year-olds are the highest ever according to results recently released from the 2008 National Assessment of Educational Progress.
The bad news is that boys trail girls in reading performance at all age levels. The gap at age 9 is 8 points, at age 13 is 8 [...]
By Bill Costello • October 20, 2009 at 7:05 AM
New math results on the most important nationwide math test show only 39 percent of fourth graders and 34 percent of eight graders scored at or above the proficient level. Most students do not have the knowledge and skills commensurate with their grade level.
These results aren’t surprising considering the fact that many U.S. schools are [...]
By Bill Costello • October 19, 2009 at 1:21 AM
On international assessments of educational performance, Japan is one of the top performing countries in science and math.
The two primary international assessments that examine the performance of students in science and math are the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA).
The former assesses science and math [...]
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