Sample Test Item:
BUSES
A bus is driving along a straight stretch of road. The bus driver, named Ray, has a cup of water resting on the dashboard:
Suddenly Ray has to slam on the brakes
What is most likely to happen to the water in the cup?
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I noted to Jacqueline that from personal experience coffee seems to fly out of all sides of the cup when I brake too fast!
Allison, another student in the class constructed these tables to help summarize the PISA results:
Which countries had students who scored significantly higher than average, on the average, and significantly lower than the average (identify 5 higher, 5 average, and 5 lower performing countries) on the PISA assessment of the science literacy of 15 year old students?
Higher than Average
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Shanghai China
575
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Finland
554
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Hong Kong China
549
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Singapore
542
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Japan
539
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Average
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Hungary
503
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US
502
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Czech Republic
500
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Norway
500
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Denmark
499
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Lower than Average
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Qatar
379
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Panama
376
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Azerbaijan
373
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Peru
369
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Kyrgyzstan
330
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Which countries registered high levels of science literacy as indicated by combining percentages for the Level 5 and Level 6 results? Which countries had low levels of science literacy as indicated by combining percentages for Level 1 and Level 2 results?
8.5% of OECD countries students were proficient in science on combined levels five and six, while only 1% could perform the most difficult science tasks at level six.
Highest Level of Science (level 5 and 6 combined)
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Finland
18.7%
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New Zealand
17.6%
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Japan
16.9%
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Australia
14.5%
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Germany
12.8%
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Lowest Level of Science literacy (levels 1 &2 combined)
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Korea
6.3%
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Finland
6.0%
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Estonia
8.3%
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Canada
9.6%
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Australia
12.6%
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In the U.S., 9% of students scored high science literacy and 18% of students scored low science literacy.
Something that really stood out to Justin was Australia. It was both one of the best and one of the worst performing nations when we look at it through these metrics. That suggests to me that there is probably a wide range of education in Australia. We know that same condition is very true in NC as well where your zip code really matters when it comes to access to a quality education.
William and Matthew both are concerned that in NC the end of course test in science seems to reinforce fact-level teaching, so must they teach low for students to test high. But, Margaret noted that Finland and South Korea scored high on both the TIMSS (with more lower level test items) and the higher order PISA test, so maybe teachers can really teach high and not sacrifice the potential for students to score well - even on test of lower level content knowledge!
Your comments are welcomed.
Charles Coble
Dr. Coble,
ReplyDeleteThat is a great summary of all our findings, we seem like a pretty sharp group! This is a complex situation and the U.S. education system must consider the PISA test score results to ensure global competiveness. The McGraw-Hill textbook company has dedicated research to this issue and provides a report with usable strategies on a local level at : http://www.mcgraw-hillresearchfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/pisa-intl-competitiveness.pdf
The report states on page 2 that: "Bringing the U.S. up to the average performance of Finland, the best performing OECD education system in PISA, could result in gains on the order of $103 trillion." Our end of year tests that we currently give to measure school achievement and ultimately individual school accountability in the U.S. have strong stakeholders from local real estate markets to school funding. But the statement above by McGraw-Hill shows stakeholders on a global level that will feel the impacts if we do not teach our students the higher level thinking skills that are represented on the PISA.
I recommend reading the report, it covers many topics that we have discussed in this class. (watch that coffee people!)