Fw: [LiteracyForAll] Re: PISA scores

["GERALD BRACEY" <gbracey1@verizon.net>]

What follows is in ref. to something I sent another list yesterday, but since it involves a test, maybe some ARNer can take a swing at it.

On PISA
The science difference between males and females is tiny -2 points favoring boys,among the 28 OECD nations, about the same for the 29 non-OECD countries; 18 of 27 differences favor girls.

The math difference is also rather small, 11 points in OECD, 7.5 points in non-OECD, both favoring boys.

The reading difference is huge, 38 points in OECD, 41 points in non-OECD, both favoring girls.  Only 2 OECD nations have differences smaller than 30 points, Netherlands at 24 and UK at 29.  Greece has the largest, 57 points, Finland the second largest, 51.  The difference is there whether the country is high scoring, middling, or low.

What produces such consistent differences across 57 countries?

These are 15-year-olds, not beginning readers.  

Jerry

----- Original Message ----- 
From: GERALD BRACEY 
To: LiteracyForAll@yahoogroups.com 
Sent: Wednesday, July 02, 2008 1:57 PM
Subject: Re: [LiteracyForAll] Re: PISA scores


But I don't see how an "adult orientation" would produce such large and consistent gender differences in 57 countries.  And recall, these are 15-year-olds.

While OECD has been secretive about the items in order to use them again, it has released some.  Put "released items" pisa and whatever topic you want: reading, math or science into Google.  The items in math and science are long, discursive, sometimes have irrelevant information and sometimes errors.  This is no doubt why the correlation between math and reading is .77.  In fact, if you gave me items in a pile and told me to sort by topic, I'd put some of the reading items, some of those that call for extracting information, in the math pile.  

Supposedly, items are accepted by consensus (57 nations?) and come from authentic text--something that's been published somewhere--although they pass through the hands of official item writers.  They are supposed to be "culturally neutral."  Ha.  

There is one that tells of an Algerian king who visits a judge in disguise because the judge is reputed to be very wise.  Among the three disputes the king adjudicates is one where a peasant and a scholar both claim the same woman as a wife.  Judge tells them to leave the woman with him and come back tomorrow.  The next day he awards the wife to the scholar.  He had called her into his office and asked her to fill his ink well.  "She washed the inkwell quickly and deftly and filled it with ink; therefore it was work she was accustomed to."  Give that item writer the Bella Abzug memorial inkwell.

Jerry

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Susan Ohanian 
  To: LiteracyForAll@yahoogroups.com 
  Sent: Wednesday, July 02, 2008 11:57 AM
  Subject: Re: [LiteracyForAll] Re: PISA scores


  My theory with tests such as McGraw-Hill is that it isn't the text that 
  befuddles students but the questions. The questions are based on an 
  adult orientation, not taking a kid's psychology into account at all.

  Children & Reading Tests by Clifford Hill and Eric Larsen offers 
  compelling description of students answers to a test no longer used 
  (that's how they got permission to reproduce it). In fascinating detail, 
  they show that students are reading a different text that test writers 
  think they wrote.

  The tests are secret so nobody can show how shoddy they are. Scholars 
  won't examine them because publishers won't give permission to quote 
  passages. If you can't publish the results, what's the point of doing 
  research?

  I highly recommend the Hill & Larsen. Even if you think you know LOTS 
  about children's reading, this book will startle you. It's an expensive 
  book but available for $20.03 in used books at Amazon.

  Susan O.

  paularead@aol.com wrote:
  >
  >
  >
  > Jerry,
  >
  > I have always found non fiction texts to be more compelling reading 
  > for many
  > students in middle/high school... I wonder if fiction/non fiction 
  > comes into
  > play in PISA and most standardized reading dependent texts/tests?
  >
  >
  > In working with 11-18 year olds, I included running records across all 
  > their
  > school texts with each student who was referred for reading/writing 
  > help...
  > this is how I challenged the single reading test scores with teachers and
  > students... making the point that what we know about a topic impacts 
  > what we are
  > able to read and gain more info and write about coherently. We spent time
  > exploring ways teachers and students could increase their individual and
  > collective prior knowledge on topics before they read or wrote 
  > texts... including
  > fiction readings. This also took the wind out of everyones' complaint 
  > that a
  > particular student "didn't even know how to read or write". Like 
  > Yvonne, I
  > spent a lot of time reading and discussing background multigenre and
  > multimodal information to fill the prior knowledge gaps students had, 
  > in order to
  > prepare them for the course texts they were expected to make sense. 
  > The 'skill
  > and drill' remedial programs that students participated in during 
  > elementary
  > school often took place during social studies or science time so they 
  > usually
  > missed much of the enrichment topics that introducted ideas important to
  > what they later were "expected" to know. A lot of these kids in 
  > elementary
  > "pull-out" programs got double whammied... no enrichment in topic they 
  > needed to
  > understand, limited participation in discussions in which they might have
  > excelled, and gaps that left future content learning more difficult.
  >
  > I wonder how other countries deal with students who need assistance.
  >
  > Paula
  >
  > **************Gas prices getting you down? Search AOL Autos for
  > fuel-efficient used cars. 
  > (http://autos.aol.com/used?ncid=aolaut00050000000007 
  > <http://autos.aol.com/used?ncid=aolaut00050000000007>)
  >
  > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
  >
  > 

  [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]



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