Lessons from Abroad: International Standards and Assessments

Thank you! Kathryn Baron is features producer and research editor at Edutopia. She was most recently a Journalism Fellow developing a multidisciplinary, multimedia civic-journalism project at the Chief Justice Earl Warren Institute on Race, Ethnicity, and Diversity, at the University of California at Berkeley School of Law.

I had a look at all the examples you give. France ,Morrocco and China have excellent levels in Maths.
I have students who attended high school in Canada and the States, the level we teach is way above.
Yet, I don't think models can be applied. Each country has its own way of preparing young people to a job.
We don't have any selection in France until University.
We haven't reached good results yet.
And the last thing is that the pupils who succeed always come from wealthy backgrounds.
So, we, in France want to copy the Finnish system, but they have about 20 pupils per clas, we have 35!!!!
Lastly a French student works from 8am till 6pm, it has nothing to do with a German student who ends up at 1.30 pm.
Requirements can't be the same, neither general culture.
Au revoir

Hi Rosa, the powerpoint is linked above or you can access it at http://www.edutopia.org/images/webinar/Assessments.ppt

We hope you enjoyed the webinar!

It's 11/18 and the Powerpoint doesn't seem to be available. Or is it placed somewhere else? Thanks.

I felt that my Finland vs. the largest school system in the US comparison was fun and wild and, as is often the case, dangerously, possibly true. Here is what I found on the web: "Statistics Finland" 2008 children ages 5-19 929,337 vs. 999,150 New York schools 2006 Wiki "List of the largest school districts in the US by enrollment" Bingo! Read how Finland invests in its education and try that? The country with the second lowest population density in Europe...battling the forces of depopulation...never a world threat for world power or world intellectual or labor domination.

Finland is an anomaly, an outlier, a shadow puppet...but not a true comparison for educational system comparisons?

The current educational reform method of America is based on three funding/de-funding "schemes" created parallel to Reaganomics/Supply-sided economics..."starve the beast" (the government (in this case it is public schools), privatization, and (block) grants rather than sustained funding. This is where "Race to the Top" masks over the funding potholes of recent de-funding and NCLB unfunded mandates. These "conservative" angles seem embedded in Linda Darling-Hammond's slide show.

No Child Left Behind was a theoretical farce (100% passing (states like Indiana implemented it using the high stakes test ISTEP and its mandated "fixed" failure rates). Race to the Top is a reverse linguistic farce. Indiana, like all/many/most states, is claiming that it will be number 1 in the nation soon. Everyone cannot be first.

Does hyperbole make good policy? ...guide good policy?

There are many good ideas for education's future. Every education pundit seems to demand pan-experimentation of their reforms, without consideration of the true successes of current forms.

When complex and serious discussion is set aside, charter schools are called the best solution. "Let's charter(permit) whatever and then hold accountable with assessment (standardized)?" This is a system, or is it experimental capitalism? Pure capitalism demands losers in the face of efficiency. 50% of the schools will have to be in the bottom half. Shall we always berate and destroy the bottom half? "Race to the Top", but make sure there are no Jamaican sprinters in your group.

Why are so few students qualifying for 4-year colleges? We have pounded them to be college ready, but not readied the colleges for them. Colleges cannot handle the number of students we send them, so they have rapidly raised admission requirements and costs.

America must always grow its educational system, but it needs to drop the panic talk. The whole world is not a crisis. Statistics should no longer be used to "school scare" the public/politicians. Everyone should stop using the "look-and-all-of-these-facts-and-terms-that-kids-do-not-know" surveys to scare people into reform. They are the biggest lie of education and of life. It is human nature and the mind's nature to forget...thus books.

Good educational reforms are good because they are good and work. They should not be used to save a "lost America". Sputnik did not destroy America.

Great presentation. I want to continue to study your work. How do I get a copy of the power point presentation.

I assume that my webinar question will appear in an eventual posting of unanswered questions. Linda utilized a US state to country comparison. With the US population over 300 million and all of the EU at 400 million, we see this even more clearly. Do national comparisons create more ignorance than clarity? If there are only 2 countries: one that is 99% of a population and one that is only 1% of that population, we can see that the country that is 99% will always create/be the average score. The other country can better, equal, or outperform it, but it cannot "be" the average. If there are 5 countries: one is 96%, and the other four are 1%. We have the same trends as above, but now the bigger country can establish the average and be ranked in 5th. It is really unlikely that it will outscore the others. The numbers/odds say it is less likely so. These country comparisons do not take into account the fact that the US's massive population size necessitates that it gravitate to the middle average (which could be itself). Many of these smaller countries can easily and nimbly "outscore" it merely for matters of statistical demographics? Is it possible that Finland's school population is more comparable to the largest school system in the US...not for the purpose of real comparisons, but for the sake of understanding scale. We have states that are a fraction of city populations. Raw numbers are often meaningless without "per capita". What is income without a comparison to inflation or cost-of-living? So many educational discussions are built on a layer of assumptions blind to basic statistical management. For 50 years we have cried "Sputnik" every 10 years, but the "American-education-is-losing-the race-to-the-future" chants never pans out in the labor market.

Much education misinformation is clearly explained in the book "The Manufactured Crisis".

Though I linger in the vein with most Americans as an Independent, I find it odd that this presentation's PowerPoint skips Clinton's education initiative. Heck, every president, no matter how competent or incompetent, will have a major educational initiative because education bashing and reform are a no-cost-and-all-gain proposition like no other.

Being an education reformer is about as personally bold as creating and promoting new ice cream flavors with fun and jargonistic names. Beyond the cold, milk or fruit base and sweetener, there is really little difference. Many of the world's most successful schools are completely unprogressive.

I am not against PBL or progressive education or reform. But they all may be solutions to a problem that does not exist...a mirage.

Thank you very much! I am rejuvenated.

Hi All -

Contrary to what was announced during the webinar, this presentation will not be available until this afternoon, after the second webinar finishes at 7:30 Eastern/4:30 Pacific. We're posting some additional resources in the next few minutes, however.

Thanks for your patience and sorry for the mis-info!

I have the same question....where/how can I access the power point presentation?
Thank you