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OECD PISA Scores – Which Countries Are Beating NZ?

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or “What do those in front do that we might learn from?”

or “Who is behind us and why?”

or “Who is slipping backwards in the ratings, and, well what are they doing that we must avoid like the plague?”

Okay now we’ve got the title sorted, let’s see how the 15 year olds are doing around the world…

And more to the point – how the Kiwis are doing… *

 2009  Programme for International Student Assessment — test scores
 # Reading – Overall Mathematics Science
 1  China: Shanghai  556  China: Shanghai  600  China: Shanghai  575
 2  Korea  539  Singapore  562  Finland  554
 3  Finland  536  Hong Kong  555  Hong Kong  549
 4  Hong Kong  533  Korea  546  Singapore  542
 5  Singapore  526  Chinese Taipei  543  Japan  539
 6  Canada  524  Finland  541  Korea  538
 7  New Zealand  521  Liechtenstein  536  New Zealand  532
 8  Japan  520  Switzerland  534  Canada  529
 9  Australia  515  Japan  529  Estonia  528
 10  Netherlands  508  Canada  527  Australia  527
 11  Belgium  506  Netherlands  526  Netherlands  522
 12  Norway  503  China: Macao  525  Chinese Taipei  520
 13  Estonia  501  New Zealand  519  Liechtenstein  520
 14  Switzerland  501  Belgium  515  Germany  520
 15  Iceland  500  Australia  514  Switzerland  517
 16  Poland  500  Germany  513  United Kingdom  514
 17  United States  500  Estonia  512  Slovenia  512
 18  Liechtenstein  499  Iceland  507  China: Macao  511
 19  Germany  497  Denmark  503  Poland  508
 20  Sweden  497  Slovenia  501  Ireland  508
 21  France  496  Norway  498  Belgium  507
 22  Ireland  496  France  497  Hungary  503
 23  Chinese taipei  495  Slovak Republic  497  United States  502
 PISA  average :  501
 24  Denmark  495  Austria  496  Norway  500
 PISA  average :  496
 25  Hungary  494  Poland  495  Czech Republic  500
 26  United Kingdom  494  Sweden  494  Denmark  499
 PISA  average :  493
 Reading – Overall  Mathematics  Science
 27  Portugal  489  Czech Republic  493  France  498
 28  China: Macao  487  United Kingdom  492  Iceland  496
 29  Italy  486  Hungary  490  Sweden  495
 30  Latvia  484  Luxembourg  489  Austria  494
 31  Greece  483  United States  487  Latvia  494
 32  Slovenia  483  Ireland  487  Portugal  493

So, Out of 65 countries worldwide, New Zealand is 7th for Reading and Science, and 13th for Maths.

Now, where are the UK and USA – because we are following in their footsteps with Charter Schools, so they must be good, right?

Maths

  • USA – 31st
  • UK  – 28th
  • Oh, right, so 18 and 15 places behind New Zealand.  Yeah, well, okay, but what about science?

Science

  • USA – 16th
  • UK – 23rd.
  • Where was NZ again?  7th?   Sorry did you say seventh?  So nine places above the USA and 16 places above the UK.  Again, we beat them by miles.  Hmmmm.  And reading?

Reading

  • USA – 17th
  • UK – 26th
  • Remind me again where NZ was?  7th.  So 10 places ahead of Uncle Sam and 19 ahead of the Poms.

Okay I am clearly missing something here…

Why would we want to copy the faulty ideology of countries we are thrashing hands down?

If we want to improve even further, what about maybe paying attention to one of the countries consistently above us, instead?

Anyone?

Anyone?

Beuller???

* Sorry the table was so big, but I had to make it that long to keep the USA and UK visible there near the bottom…

http://ourtimes.wordpress.com/2008/04/10/oecd-education-rankings/

http://www.oecd.org/pisa/pisaproducts/46619703.pdf

About Save Our Schools NZ

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Discussion

7 thoughts on “OECD PISA Scores – Which Countries Are Beating NZ?”

  1. So would the blog poster like to inform the audience of your experience living, working and teaching children in the UK and the US? Both of these countries are far different to New Zealand. There are so many factors involved in these ratings, they are naive at best and ludicrous at worst.Many Charter schools in the UK have been wildly successful, the problem in our education system isn’t the introduction of charter schools. The problem is wide ranging… socio-economic, very poor pay and ridiculous working conditions for teachers (paperwork, paperwork, paperwork).

    Like

    Posted by Mark Cavendish | October 25, 2012, 12:01 am
    Reply to this comment

    • It’s kind of irrelevant what my own experience is – it has no bearing on my ability to analyse and comment on the report. The OECD’s PISA scores are well respected and oft repeated throughout the OECD as measures of various socio-economic factors. The problems in NZ are not nearly as bad as the government makes out – however, I totally agree that they are primarily socio-economic. Charter schools do not have a good record on many levels, not least of all regarding inclusion and teachers’ working conditions. I cannot for the life of me see how they will improve anything at all. If all schools were given the same freedoms charters will be given, that would make more sense. We should be looking to Finland, not to places slipping backwards. If you believe charters will help NZ, I truly would like to see some detailed and well researched information to back that up. I am always willing to consider new information and learn from it.

      Like

      Posted by Dianne - SaveOurSchoolsNZ | October 25, 2012, 12:25 am
      Reply to this comment

Trackbacks/Pingbacks

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