DID YOU KNOW?
How much does student reading and mathematics performance improve in the kindergarten through the third grade years?
Response:
The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998–99 collects information on a cohort of children who began kindergarten in fall 1998 and follows them through spring 2004, when most will have completed grade 5. The study assesses children’s achievement in reading, mathematics, and general knowledge as they progress through school. From fall 1998 through the end of 3rd grade in spring 2002, children’s average reading scale score increased 81 points, from 27 to 108. The corresponding increase in mathematics was 63 points, from a scale score of 22 in fall 1998 to 85 in spring 2002.1
The number of family risk factors (household below poverty level, non-English primary home language, mother's highest education less than a high school diploma/GED, and single-parent household) is negatively associated with children's achievement gains in reading and mathematics. As the number of family risk factors increased, children experienced smaller gains from the start of kindergarten through the end of 3rd grade in both subject areas. For example, children with no family risk factors had an average gain of 84 points in reading, compared with a 73-point gain among children with 2 or more family risk factors.
Also, Black children demonstrated smaller gains in reading and mathematics than White, Hispanic, and Asian/Pacific Islander children. Multivariate analysis shows the same patterns of differences after accounting for differences in the number of family risk factors as well as other selected characteristics (i.e., sex, kindergarten program type, and types of schools attended). While race/ethnicity is related to the number of family risk factors (Zill and West 2001, p. 18), after accounting for the factors examined here, race/ethnicity and the number of family risk factors are independently related to children's gains in reading and mathematics.
At the start of kindergarten in both reading and mathematics, Black children had lower mean achievement scores than other racial/ethnic groups, and children with family risk factors had lower achievement scores than their peers with fewer risk factors. These achievement gaps grew wider from the start of kindergarten in fall 1998 to the end of 3rd grade in spring 2002.
1The fall kindergarten to spring 3rd-grade reading scale gains ranged from 16 to 125 points, with a mean of 81 points and a standard deviation of 16.8 points, and the mathematics scale gains ranged from 17 to 104 points, with a mean of 63 points and a standard deviation of 13.7 points.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. (2004). The Condition of Education 2004 (NCES 2004–077), Indicator 8.
Question:How does achievement of American students compare to students in other countries?
Response:
The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) carries out a variety of activities in order to provide statistical data for international comparisons of education.
Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), is carried out under the aegis of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) and supported by NCES. TIMSS, conducted every 4 years, is an assessment of fourth-and eighth-graders in mathematics and science.
On the 2007 TIMSS mathematics assessment, U.S. fourth-graders' average score (529) was higher than the average mathematics scores of fourth-graders in 23 of the 35 other participating educational systems, lower than the scores in 8 educational systems, and not measurably different from the scores in the remaining 4 educational systems (Average scale scores from the TIMSS assessment are based on a range of possible scores from 0 to 1,000. Most participating educational systems represent countries; however, some represent subnational entities with separate educational systems, such as the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) of the People's Republic of China. The educational systems that outperformed the United States in fourth-grade mathematics—namely, Chinese Taipei, England, Hong Kong SAR, Japan, Kazakhstan, Latvia, the Russian Federation, and Singapore—all were located in Asia or Europe. In 2007, U.S. eighth-graders' average mathematics score (508) was higher than the average scores of eighth-graders in 37 of the 47 other participating educational systems, lower than the scores in 5 educational systems, and not measurably different from the scores in the remaining 5 educational systems. All of the educational systems that outperformed the United States in eighth-grade mathematics were in Asia (Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong SAR, Japan, the Republic of Korea, and Singapore).
On the 2007 TIMSS science assessment, U.S. fourth-graders' average score (539) was higher than the average science scores of fourth-graders in 25 of the 35 other participating educational systems, lower than the scores in 4 educational systems (all of them located in Asia), and not measurably different from the scores in the remaining 6 educational systems. The educational systems that outperformed the United States in fourth-grade science were Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong SAR, Japan, and Singapore. In 2007, U.S. eighth-graders' average science score (520) was higher than the average scores of eighth-graders in 35 of the 47 other educational systems, lower than the scores in 9 educational systems (all located in Asia or Europe), and not measurably different from the scores in the remaining 3 educational systems. The educational systems that outperformed the United States in eighth-grade science were in Chinese Taipei, the Czech Republic, England, Hungary, Japan, the Republic of Korea, the Russian Federation, Slovenia, and Singapore.
The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) is a system of international assessments that measures 15-year-olds' performance in reading literacy, mathematics literacy, and science literacy every 3 years. In 2006, fifty-seven jurisdictions participated in PISA, including 30 OECD countries and 27 non-OECD countries.
On the 2006 PISA, the average score of U.S. 15-year-olds in mathematics literacy was 474, which was lower than the OECD average of 498. (Possible scores on PISA assessments range from 0 to 1,000.) The average mathematics literacy score in the United States was lower than the average score in 23 of the other 29 OECD countries for which comparable PISA results were reported, higher than the average score in 4 of the other OECD countries, and not measurably different from the average score in 2 of the OECD countries. Comparable mathematics literacy results were also reported for 27 non-OECD jurisdictions, 8 of which had higher average scores than did the United States. In science literacy, the average score of 15-year-olds in the United States was lower than the average score in 16 of the other 29 OECD countries, higher than the average score in 5 of the other OECD countries, and not measurably different from the average score in 8 of the OECD countries. In 6 of the 27 non-OECD jurisdictions, the science literacy scores of 15-year-olds were higher than the average score in the United States. PISA 2006 reading literacy results were not reported for the United States because of an error in printing the test booklets.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. Digest of Education Statistics, 2009
to be contiued....................*****************************************************************
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