The instructor of a reading workshop I attended recently mentioned this article about the achievement of U.S. students as compared to those of other countries.
Apparently, some of the characterizations of American students as underachievers when compared to foreign students is overblown. True, American students rank behind some of their foreign peers in math achievement, but our upper level math students are fully on a par with the upper level students of most western countries. In the area of reading and reading comprehension, we rank near the top.
What skews the results of these comparisons is the existence of a fairly large number of students who come from lower economic status families when compared to nations such as Japan.
This article appears to be well researched and written. I post it here for those who are interested in reading a paper that doesn't just regurgitate all the "facts" so often given prominent attention in the press.
http://www.centerforpubliceducation.org/site/c.kjJXJ5MPIwE/b.2422943/k.3608/More_than_a_horse_race_A_guide_to_international_tests_of_student_achievement.htm Regards, Shuckins
