Making the Grade International Testing that is Used to Predict the Grim Future of US Science and Technology is Being Vastly Misinterpreted,
Nature, Vol 453:1, May 2008
3 Pages Posted: 24 Jan 2013
Date Written: May 08
Abstract
Improving education should be a priority for the nation, but erroneous interpretations of international test scores may drive economic and competitiveness policy in the wrong direction. When we consider that education testing shows formidable US strength as the largest producer of top-scoring students alongside a significant problem at the bottom, the threat to future competitiveness seems to be something quite different from the headlines. Caution is needed so we neither create policies that overstock the science and technology workforce nor unthinkingly implement the education and social practices in other high-scoring countries.
Keywords: education, internation testing, student performance
JEL Classification: I00, H50
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation