I’m looking at Figure 2.16a (page 57) and I can’t figure it out! The vertical scale is percentage, but it goes from 100% at the top to zero in the middle to 100% again at the bottom?

I think I just flunked a level 3 question :-0

I was perplexed by that graph at first too. What they’ve done is divide the students from each country into 7 groups – those at “level 6″ or higher, those level 5 to 6, 4 to 5, 3 to 4, 2 to 3, 1 to 2, and those below level 1. Then they’ve plotted the 100% of students for each country on the graph in those bar charts in such a way that all those above level 2 are counted as above the zero line, and all those below level 2 are below the zero line – ie. 100% above the line means all the students in that country are above level 2; 100% below the line means no students in the country are above level 2. Makes sense when you think about it, though I’ve never seen such a plot done that way before.

On the positive side (see chapter 3 of the report, “Students beliefs about themselves”), US students were reported to have the highest self-esteem, with 72% saying they were good at math.

I wouldn’t say this is positive: it means US kids are utterly delusional, not “reality based”. As a foreigner living in this country for many years, this is what I fear most about my kids being educated in this country: “everybody’s great”, so there’s no feedback to help a child figure out what is good work and what is poor work.

of our American culture’s worship of stupidity. Look at how our music, movies, and politics play to the lowest possible level. Stupidity and wealth are seen as cool, math is derided as “nerdy”.

I’m not sure I put any stock in this metric. It doesn’t matter on a local scale how you consider yourself when the entire survey is global. It’s apples and oranges. An american child saying I’m good at math is saying that I do better than the majority of my competitors (ooops, peers). Meaningless information when you’re interested in how kids in different countries fair against each other.

Correlation of those feelings with ranked countries though … that’s where the interesting stuff lies. Note the Korea situation.

Sorry if my irony was a little too subtle there, but yes, that’s what I was trying to imply – thanks for stating it more explicitly!

Im not surprised, arrogance is the word that define Americans. Shame oh SHAME

When I researched the last PISA, the students tested here in the US were those in the public school system who were 15 (ninth and tenth graders here). In some countries, that meant a great many 15 year olds were not even considered for testing, because they weren’t in what was considered public school(they didn’t pass some test which meant they weren’t in “high school” but were already employed, or unemployed, or attending something alternative… apprenticeship, tech training, religious training, military, special needs) This meant that there were some comparison problems.
However, if you look at the US results on their own…you still have some serious problems that definitely need adjusting. Number one in my book? 15 year olds in the public education system do not seem to intrinsically value education , and mathematics and science least of all.