Anyone read THE ATLANTIC?  I love this magazine – this publication has no qualms about pointing out the flaws in political “truthiness,” agreed?  The December issue has a fabulous article titled “Your Child Left Behind” which details recent Stanford based standardized ranking experiments, comparing school mathematics achievement in each of the 50 states to those in other countries.  Data is based on scores from PISA, taken periodically by high school 15 year olds here in the states. 

The results?  Yes, yes, Taiwan is #1 – way ahead of the pack – this is old news…but one bright glimmer of hope is shining in the distance – an indicator of future achievement (one would hope).  MA, MN, VT, NJ & WA rank higher than expected, in and among the ranks of countries like Germany, Denmark, the UK & Sweden – thank goodness.  I am nothing but pleased as punch to be able to count our fine state as among those with a fighting chance at completing on the international stage academically!  Your choice to move to NJ?  An excellent one…congratulations to you.  Eat my dust, CT!

Wanna hear the kicker?  The usual arguments of why our states are poor overall scoreres aren't holding water.  According to the experiments, there is very little direct correlation between the scoring and privilege.  Yes, you read it right…the scores were further broken down to isolate scores for only white students, as well as all students with at least one college educated parent, and the results indicate that just because you have a greater life advantage, it doesn’t necessarily translate to more competitive scoring in mathematical proficiency in comparison to average students from other countries!  Also, the results seem to indicate very little direct correlation between class size and dollar amount spent per student, as previously thought – smaller classes and spending more money per child is NOT a panacea for all our school ills.  This is news to me, but certainly piques my interest.  So…then what is the fix?

According to the article, there is a relationship between how teachers do on teacher-prep programs and how the students do – MA, for instance, is asking their incoming teachers to pass basic literacy requirements – the idea being that you can’t teach what you yourself don’t know.  It seems to be working…at least on paper…

Let’s hope NJ continues down the same path – I’d like to see my son beat out that Finnish kid for the same job 20 years down the line because he went to a competitive school right here in NJ… and I like our chances better and better.

The find out more about NJ schools and homes in the area, contact me at 917-992-3098 or nancychu_homes@yahoo.com.  To read more about the article, go to http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/12/your-child-left-behind/8310/