

Pisa 2012 results: which country does best at reading, maths and science? - yapcguy
http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2013/dec/03/pisa-results-country-best-reading-maths-science

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JamieLewis
I really wish people wouldn't give this as much weight has it gets, there are
so many problems with the methodology:

1\. The raw data (answers, in particular the free response text) has never to
my knowledge been published. 2\. The algorithm used to select schools and
pupils taking the test has never to my knowledge been published. (In fact it
differs from country to country...or city..) 3\. The test itself is taken in
many different languages, which language version of the test is used in which
country, has to my knowledge never been published. 4\. They compare Shanghai,
a relatively well off city with entire countries..without knowing the data in
1-3 we cannot know if this comparison is fair or makes any sense at all. 5\.
They administer the test at different times of the year relative to exam
time...some teenagers would have just got back from summer break, others would
have been deep revision, preparing for other exams - I would guess this has a
statistically significant impact on performance.

Until they publish all the data so it can be analysed independently (and god
forbid replicated), this isn't science or statistics...it's busy work.

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yapcguy
Sobering. Britain ranked 26th and the USA 36th.

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DanBC
Can the UK use the excuse that English is a difficult language to learn?
(Ignoring the fact that Australia ranks higher than the UK)

English feels difficult to learn, and part of that is the vast amount of
language we get from other countries. Does Japanese have that problem? I know
that they have Pan for bread which they got from Portuguese, but do they have
as many imports as English?

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dmoo
I guess not since Canada, New Zealand and Ireland are all higher as well.

