US Reading Scores Plummet on Global Exam

toomuchtodo

https://archive.today/nKJbQ

whh

TIL: B-S-J-Z (China) in the rankings means Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang. Instead of testing mainland China as a whole, the OECD allows these four specific provincial-level jurisdictions to represent China in the triennial PISA rankings for 15-year-old students.

riversflow

Here is a link to the actual report which is better than this paywalled editorialization. https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/pisa-2025-results-volum...

arjie

It will be interesting to see the race-wise results. On 2022, those show US Asians at number 1 for Reading and Science and 4 (behind Singapore, Macau, Taiwan) in Mathematics; with US White close behind; and then a steep drop off for other races until US Black at number 35, 43, 52. There’s a large gap in subpopulations which means change in population blend causes the total population to show change without an underlying intervention to the actual subjects. But of course we will know that once the race tables are released.

bko

Somewhat related but I saw this tweet that claims the SAT and ACT has been significantly relaxed to produce higher scores. The competition is to try to make an easier test so more people use that test and pay the fees. The post was from someone selling an alternative, so it should be taken w a grain of salt. But if you look at Harvard, the median SAT score is 1550 today, much higher than before. Another post gave an example of a real SAT question, which I will present below: The following text is from David Barclay Moore’s 2022 novel Holler of the Fireflies. The narrator has just arrived at summer camp, which is far away from his home. This place was different than I thought it would be. I’d never been somewhere like this before. I did feel scared, but also excited. According to the text, how does the narrator feel about being at summer camp? A) He feels overjoyed. B) He feels peaceful. C) He feels both scared and excited. D) He feels both angry and jealous. https://x.com/the_culturist_/status/2092961940314144888/phot...

xtajv

This is a friendly reminder that for about 10 years, "sightwords" (rote memorization) displaced phonics in an attempt to show off a younger reading age. (Plot twist: You can get kindergarteners to "read" via sightwords, when they might otherwise only be intellectually-mature enough to do so (for real) starting in 1st-2nd grade... but the shortcuts catch up with folks when they hit ~4th-5th grade reading comprehension).