This post is a continuation to a previous post on school vouchers. The newly released OECD's Programme for Student International Assessment (PISA) 2006 report has many interesting observations. An ,executive summary of the Report is available. Some of its findings are very interesting.
1. The socio-economic background of students significantly affects test performance - the lower the income of a child's family, the worse he is likely to do on the exam.
2. The socio-economic and cultural standards of fellow students play an even more crucial role in determining the performance of a student. The report says, "Regardless of their own socio-economic background, students attending schools in which the average socio-economic background is high tend to perform better than when they are enrolled in a school with below socio-economic intake. In the majority of OECD countries, the effect of the average economic, social and cultural status of students in a school... far outweighs the effects of the individual student's socio-economic background."
Therefore it is not surprising that since a large portion of US black and Hispanic students are isolated in high-poverty schools that universally face enormous educational obstacles, their average test scores are far below the levels for whites. In contrast, African-American and Hispanic students attending middle-class schools do much better on standardised tests.
The report observes, "Among fourth-graders in 2005, 48% of blacks and 49% of Hispanics attended schools in which more than 75% of the students were eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. By comparison, only 5% of white students attended such high-poverty schools. Nearly three-quarters of all black and Hispanic students go to schools with at least half the enrolment eligible for subsidised lunch."
3. Private schools do not necessarily perform better. The report says, "On average across the OECD, students in private schools outperformed students in public schools in 21 countries, while public schools outperformed private ones in four countries. The picture changed, however, when the socio-economic background of students and schools was taken into account. Public schools then had an advantage of 12 score points over private schools, on average across OECD countries. That said, private schools may still pose an attractive alternative for parents looking to maximise the benefits for their children, including those benefits that are conferred to students through the socio-economic level of schools’ intake."
4. In favor of competition between schools, the report observes, "Across OECD countries, 60% of students were enrolled in schools whose principals reported competing with two or more other schools in the local area. Across countries, having a larger number of schools that compete for students is associated with better results, over and above the relationship with student background."
5. About teachers and other resources, the report says, "Resources such as an adequate supply of teachers and quality of educational resources at school are on average across countries associated with positive student outcomes. But many of these effects are not significant after taking account of the fact that students from a more advantaged socio-economic background tend to get access to more educational resources."
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