School Achievement
Chapter 15 in Berk’s book
School Achievement	
•	1981 study:
•	Evaluated schools in 16 countries
•	US placed 10th in Arithmetic
•	12th in Algebra
•	16th in Geometry
•	Who placed 1st in all three?
•	1987 study:
•	Mean for US fell below the international mean on all tests!

School Achievement	
•	Stevenson and Lee (1990)
•	Cross-cultural research comparing US with China and Japan
•	When does the US fall behind?
•	Why does the difference exist?
•	1st and 5th graders from Minneapolis, Taipei, and Sendai
•	Math and Reading achievement measured
School Achievement	
•	Stevenson and Lee (1990)
•	Findings:
•	MATH
•	US last at both 1st and 5th grades for both computation and problem-solving
•	Japan’s modal score vs US modal score
•	When looked at top100 students, only 14/100 (first grade) and 1/100 (5th grade) were in the top
•	Bottom line?

School Achievement	
•	Stevenson and Lee (1990)
•	Findings:
•	READING 
•	China first at both 1st and 5th grades 
•	US second at 1st grade, but dropped to last at 5th grade
•	When looked at worst 100 students, 51/100 (first grade) and 45/100 (5th grade) were at the bottom
•	When looked at best 100 students, 38/100 (first grade) and 44/100 (5th grade) were at the top
•	Bottom line?

School Achievement	
•	Other study:
•	Average district in Chicago
•	5th grade MATH- 1.4% Chinese students scored below US mean (computation)
•	5th grade word problems- 2.6% Chinese students scored below US mean
•	What’s going on?
School Achievement	
•	What’s going on?
•	Number of days in school year
•	Spacing
•	Hours per day at school
•	Hours doing school work
•	Curriculum
•	Teacher behavior

School Achievement	
•	What’s going on?
•	Parent-teacher communication
•	Class size
•	Irrelevant interruptions by teacher
•	Homework
•	Amount of television watched
•	Work space at home
•	Money

School Achievement	
•	More subtle differences:
•	Days absent
•	Play hooky
•	Wish…
•	Perception of teachers?

School Achievement	
•	Self-perceptions
•	How are kids in the US vs other countries at rating how smart they are?
•	#1 every time
•	Big difference in US and Asian mothers involves attributions
•	Ability vs effort

School Achievement	
•	Should we just give it up?
•	US universities and med schools are said to be the best in the world
•	SAT scores
•	Ph.D.s
•	Polished stones video next time…