Andreas Schleicher gave his presentation entitled, “Use data to build better schools” at TEDGlobal 2012, he framed his discussion around the most recent results gleaned from the PISA test which compares how students perform on assessments across various countries. This is fascinating information since anyone who knows me will know that I am a major proponent of using data to drive instructional practice and address achievement gaps. Completing this testing and analyzing these data is a major challenge, but, it is good to get a sense of how things are going in the field of education and which initiative(s) have the greatest impact (ex. high spending, small class sizes, teacher pay, etc.).
Frustratingly, it was revealed that the United States of America has seen students’ academic performance decline since the 1960s. The results from the 2009 PISA study demonstrated that students from Asian countries performed exceedingly well and that there were established gaps of up to seven years of academic knowledge between countries which is an enormous concern. In Germany, when the PISA results came in and showed a decline in knowledge between 2000 and 2009, the country came together to review and make significant policy changes to improve educational quality. As Figure 1 outlines, PISA worldwide rankings show some European, Asian nations as well as Canada and Australia did very well on the 2015-2016 PISA exam.
Figure 1: PISA Worldwide Ranking (Factsmaps.com, n.d.).
Quite interestingly, data revealed that student performance in Luxembourg did not improve significantly despite one of the highest per-pupil spending rates in the world. In Canada, students performed very well which, according to Schleicher, means that equity does not need to be compromised for excellence. So what is the major takeaway here? In my opinion it is this: educational leaders must use these data to review policy trends which lead to quantifiable student improvement and consider making changes if the results are not as strong as other nations to help students to be competitive in the new global economy.
References
Factsmaps.com. (n.d.). PISA Worldwide Ranking – average score of math, science and reading. Retrieved from: http://factsmaps.com/pisa-worldwide-ranking-average-score-of-math-science-reading/
Schleicher, A. (2012). Use data to build better schools. TEDGlobal 2012. Retrieved from: https://www.ted.com/talks/andreas_schleicher_use_data_to_build_better_schools