{"id":31571,"date":"2017-01-09T05:00:51","date_gmt":"2017-01-09T09:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/?p=31571"},"modified":"2017-01-06T23:57:08","modified_gmt":"2017-01-07T03:57:08","slug":"an-the-idea-that-the-u-s-lags-behind-in-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2017\/01\/an-the-idea-that-the-u-s-lags-behind-in-education.html","title":{"rendered":"Failing Schools or High Child Poverty?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

I was homeschooled in part because my parents were concerned about the quality of the\u00a0local public schools. I grew up hearing that the U.S. was falling behind other countries in terms of academic\u00a0achievement, and that our failing public school system was to blame. I grew up. I gritted my teeth and put my daughter in public school. I loved it. She loved it. She thrived. We moved to a new area, and again we put her in public school. Once again, I loved it, she loved it, and she thrived.<\/p>\n

And yet, I still hear people say that our public schools are failing.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, people tend to rate<\/a> their local public schools highly while giving\u00a0far lower\u00a0ratings to the nation\u2019s public schools as a whole:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Nearly 50% of Americans rate their local public schools with an A or B while only 20% award the nation\u2019s public schools as a whole an A or a B. This has been going on for over three decades. This suggests that something about Americans\u2019 perceptions is out of whack\u2014they are either overestimating the quality of their local public schools or underestimating the quality of public schools in the nation as a whole.<\/p>\n

Still, concerns about the schools in the United\u00a0States being surpassed\u00a0by other countries, particularly in math learning, are\u00a0widespread and pervasive. And it\u2019s true that there are countries that boast higher scores. But, as with many things in the realm of statistics, it is unwise to look at one number\u00a0out of the context of a wide range of background factors. To see what I mean,\u00a0check out this graph<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\"10426755_1002019363186401_1082376718483836970_n\"<\/p>\n

I think about this graph every time someone starts talking about students in the\u00a0United States being behind internationally. The numbers above\u00a0are based on child poverty information from UNICEF<\/a>. Based on this data, it\u2019s\u00a0no surprise that students in, say, Finland outperform students in the U.S.\u2014indeed, we\u00a0would expect them to, because we know that child poverty correlates with lower test scores!<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not saying there\u2019s no merit in comparing different educational systems and trying to ascertain which systems work better than others and why. There absolutely is. Rather,\u00a0I am simply\u00a0exasperated with claims that U.S. schools are failing because our test scores lag behind those of countries with far lower levels of child poverty<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Those who want to use\u00a0countries\u2019 test scores to argue that one educational system or the other is superior need\u00a0to correct for factors\u00a0like child poverty rates before doing so\u2014anything less is sloppy and irresponsible.<\/p>\n

Let me offer you another example. Look here (link<\/a> and link<\/a>):<\/p>\n

\"Screen<\/p>\n

\"Screen<\/p>\n

Notice anything? Compare the dark blue states in the lower map (higher than average scores) with the green or tan states in the above map (lower child poverty). Compare the light blue states in the lower map (lower than average scores) with the orange and red states in the above map (higher child poverty). Can you see the correlation?<\/p>\n

Here, let me graph it:<\/p>\n

\"Test<\/p>\n

Sure, there\u2019s some variation. Child poverty is not the only factor in play. Still,\u00a0overall, high child poverty (the blue line) correlates with lower test scores (the red line), and as the child poverty rate goes down the test scores go up. Interesting, no?<\/p>\n

I am not saying that there isn\u2019t room for improvement. There is!<\/p>\n

I\u2019m concerned about schools that treat children as criminals, and\u00a0schools with endemic funding problems or administrations that turn over every year. I would like to see schools do more to empower children, to encourage student learning far beyond the test or the textbook. I would like to see new innovations in mathematics education, and the expansion of makerspace programs that encourage innovation and invention. But I also see schools increasingly striving to do all of these things.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s stop wringing our hands over dire prognostications that compare scores in overly simplistic ways. Instead of referring to\u00a0our public schools as \u201cfailing\u201d let\u2019s focus on encouraging innovation and on reducing child poverty. Improving children\u2019s circumstances\u2014and those of their parents\u2014will give them more energy and mental space with which to learn and thrive.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m tired of the negative approach. Let\u2019s go positive instead. Let\u2019s give praise where praise is due, focus on the whole child, and imagine a future where every child will have the resources they need to stretch their wings.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m not saying there’s no merit in comparing different educational systems and trying to ascertain which systems work better than others and why. There absolutely is. Rather, I am simply exasperated with claims that U.S. schools are failing because our test scores lag behind those of countries with far lower levels of child poverty.<\/p>\n

Click through to read more!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":845,"featured_media":31578,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[248,621,614],"class_list":["post-31571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-education","tag-schools","tag-statistics"],"yoast_head":"\nFailing Schools or High Child Poverty?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Those who want to use countries' test scores to argue that one educational system or the other is superior need to correct for factors like child poverty.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2017\/01\/an-the-idea-that-the-u-s-lags-behind-in-education.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Failing Schools or High Child Poverty?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Those who want to use countries' test scores to argue that one educational system or the other is superior need to correct for factors like child poverty.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2017\/01\/an-the-idea-that-the-u-s-lags-behind-in-education.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Love, Joy, Feminism\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-01-09T09:00:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-01-07T03:57:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/166\/2017\/01\/Test-Scores-Poverty.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"442\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Libby Anne\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Libby Anne\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2017\/01\/an-the-idea-that-the-u-s-lags-behind-in-education.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2017\/01\/an-the-idea-that-the-u-s-lags-behind-in-education.html\",\"name\":\"Failing Schools or High Child Poverty?\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-01-09T09:00:51+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-01-07T03:57:08+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#\/schema\/person\/fae465c1bbb5cbdf26c9e73bfd1b73d2\"},\"description\":\"Those who want to use countries' test scores to argue that one educational system or the other is superior need to correct for factors like child poverty.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2017\/01\/an-the-idea-that-the-u-s-lags-behind-in-education.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2017\/01\/an-the-idea-that-the-u-s-lags-behind-in-education.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2017\/01\/an-the-idea-that-the-u-s-lags-behind-in-education.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Failing Schools or High Child Poverty?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/\",\"name\":\"Love, Joy, Feminism\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#\/schema\/person\/fae465c1bbb5cbdf26c9e73bfd1b73d2\",\"name\":\"Libby Anne\",\"description\":\"Libby Anne grew up in a large evangelical homeschool family highly involved in the Christian Right. 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