International assessment expert Gary W. Phillips of the American Institutes for Research believes most states will eventually have to participate in tests like the high school-level Program for International Student Assessment and the 4th- and 8th-grade-level Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study in order to compete for global businesses. He likened it to the evolution of the National Assessment of Educational Progress, often known as "the nation's report card," which started primarily as a research tool and now is used as a pacesetter in state accountability report cards. "When NAEP first started, each state was living in its own little Lake Woebegone world, not knowing how it stacked up to other states," he says.
"Now the same is true internationally. Around the world a lot of these countries are eating our lunch. They are focusing on education in a way that we aren't," Phillips says. "We have to know how we stack up. That's why these studies are important; they allow us to benchmark what we do and know with what they know and do."
Andreas Schleicher, the head of education indicators and analysis programs for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, administrator of the PISA, said projects to compare students internationally can help America catch up to the global norm: Countries such as Germany, the United Kingdom, Belgium, and Canada, along with most other nations with federal forms of government, already compare their states or provinces to international testing benchmarks.
"Now the same is true internationally. Around the world a lot of these countries are eating our lunch. They are focusing on education in a way that we aren't," Phillips says. "We have to know how we stack up. That's why these studies are important; they allow us to benchmark what we do and know with what they know and do."
Andreas Schleicher, the head of education indicators and analysis programs for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, administrator of the PISA, said projects to compare students internationally can help America catch up to the global norm: Countries such as Germany, the United Kingdom, Belgium, and Canada, along with most other nations with federal forms of government, already compare their states or provinces to international testing benchmarks.
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