December Board of Ed: PISA results

backup here
McKenna: why did we pay to do this?
Chester: in Massachusetts, we get a number of indicator that we're doing pretty well
where we were, NAEP assessment, a couple of international assessments
"in my mind, we should expect nothing less from Massachusetts than what the most aspirational systems expect"
cost about $600,000
US has participated since 2000
MA has participated twice as a state
1700 students in 49 schools; principals, teachers fill out questionnaires
"League Table" "comes out of the scoring world, tells you who's on top and who's on the bottom"
only Singapore scores better in science, top the world in reading, "less well" in math
"our science performance ticked up slightly, though it wasn't statistically significant"
"only 14% of the variance in MA science performance in attributable to increase in scores"
go read the charts if you're wondering about that; as you'd expect, it's more complicated; for one, kis socio-economic level is self-reported
Running through some charts here, which I'll add later.
Girls (36%) more likely than boys (30%) to expect pursuing a science related career
Sagan: "just on the edge of changing their minds" commenting that girls often slip in this as they get older (PISA is taken by 15 year olds) "or maybe it's encouraging"
fewer plan to pursue science than country
Policy implications: commitment to universal achievement, "gateway exams" were students need to pass to go on
"capacity at point of delivery"
class size versus student teacher ratio
"as much as 40, 45 students in a class, but teachers spending less of their day teaching those students"
"not about class size"
"very provocative results"
"resources where they yield most"
"higher performing systems have a capable central authority"
speaks of Fryer "hoping he will look at our data sets" to see what else can be done
Massachusetts fell in middle of frequency of testing
"stakes [in other places] are often quite high for students"
"I just feel so strongly for us in Massachusetts...particularly when there is an anti-globalization sentiment...we'd be doing a disservice if we didn't connect with the most aspirational systems around the globe"
Doherty: how schools chosen?
Chester: representative sample
Peyser: also is TIMMs: can you talk about that and this?
Chester: assessment of math and science, 4th and 8th grade
have participated as a state before
"much more of a traditional assessment of 'what you know'"
Stewart: what the style of pedagogy is in the high class size places?
how they're engaging this
"can get locked into a mindset without thinking about what that might mean"
Chester cites Sweden which has declined
"allows each school to grade itself and it has declined overtime"
"and I thought that was an interesting little tidbit"