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• International organization of 34 member countries

• Dedicated to a global economic development

• Develops recommendations for common problems

“and then governments implement recommendations.”

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Two Research Instruments

•Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) – testing and survey

•Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) – survey of teachers

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  Math score rankingShanghai-China 1Singapore 2Hong Kong-China 3Chinese Taipei 4Korea 5Macao-China 6Japan 7Finland 12Massachusetts=Germany 13-17Connecticut=Austria 17-22United States 26Florida=Israel 40

Math Scores

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- A generation ago, we led the world in education.- U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan- 11/21/13

Misinformation like this is not helpful; it simply delays what we need to do to improve our schools.

April, 1983

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Or what I like to call the “The older we get, the better we were” philosophy.

Some people say the United States should get back to leading the world in education.

The United States ranks 11th out of 12 countries on an international study of mathematics achievement.

196450 years

ago

“…students from the United States have fared quite poorly on these assessments.”

Assessment of the National Center for Education Statistics on all the international comparisons from 1966 - 1988

Just wanted you to know…

We are not saying American schools are good enough—they are not. What we are saying is that we need to be honest about all the drivers of performance if we are ever going to make the right choices for our students.

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As international investment in education increased on average during the global financial crisis, U.S. investment fell.

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Note: The child poverty rate is the share of children living in households with income below half of household-size-adjusted median income.

Source: Adamson (2012, Figure 1b)

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Source: U.S. Census Source: U.S. Census

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Source: U.S. Census Source: U.S. Census

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17.3%

17.5%

Pasco County

Volusia

County

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18.7%

32.1%

Pasco County

Volusia

County

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• Direct resources to the schools and students with the greatest need;

• Ensure that teachers are well prepared and supported;• Provide all students with a robust curriculum;• Manage school choice so as to contain the risks to equity;• Expand and enhance partnerships with parents and

community, providing wraparound services and programs that target unmet needs for children and their families;

• Invest in high-quality universal childhood education.

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When poverty rates are taken into account, the U.S. becomes a top performer

Data from Mel Riddile – PISA: It’s Poverty Not Stupid

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Teachers in the U.S. spend more time teaching than those in any other country

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Data

from

PISA

TIME SPENT INSTRUCTING STUDENTS

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This is a lesson high-performing systems learned years ago.

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“Schools in Denmark, Finland, Japan, Norway, Shanghai and Sweden have a good history of teamwork and cooperation. They often form networks and share resources and work together to create innovative practice…”

“…but this collaborative culture does not fall from the sky and needs to be carefully crafted into policy and practice.”

“Collaborative Culture is the Key to Success”Andreas Schleicher – March 2013

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• Take a “holistic” approach• Align evaluation with educational goals• Focus the system on improving instruction• Avoid distortions (too much emphasis on

standardized tests, etc.)• Put students at the center (broad measure of both

quantitative and qualitative data)• Build system capacity• Allow local adjustments, flexibility• Build consensus

For Teacher Appraisal

A majority of teachers stated that criteria other than test scores were used more frequently in their appraisals or feedback

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The greater the emphasis on specific aspects of appraisal and feedback

The greater the change in teaching practices to improve teaching

Teachers need more specific feedback that

test scores cannot offer

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“While performance data in the United States are often used for purely accountability purposes, other countries tend to give greater weight to using them to guide intervention, reveal best practices and identify shared problems.”

- Lessons from PISA 2012 for the United States, OECD 2013

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“…[M]any of the countries with the strongest student performance also have the strongest teachers’ unions, beginning with Japan and Finland….Indeed, the higher a country is on the world’s education league tables, the more likely that country is working constructively with its unions and treating its teachers as trusted professional partners.”

“Lessons from PISA for the United States” Page 240

- Over 231,084 YouTube views since Dec.3

- Upworthy Facebook shares are over 151,382

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“I can’t talk about the international comparisons without noting how the so-called reformers have distorted them: They use international comparisons to denigrate American schools. But they ignore their lessons. Worse, they pursue policies that are completely antithetical to the successful strategies used in high-achieving countries. It just doesn’t make sense.”

- AFT President Randi Weingarten, 2011