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If Massachusetts Were A Country, Its Students Would Rank 9th In The World

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The U.S. continues to trail its peers in global measures of academic excellence. Based on results from the latest Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) test, of the 65 countries ranked, the US ranks 31st in math (down from 25th in 2009), 24th in science (down from 20th), and 21st in reading (down from 11th).

A weakness of the PISA test, however, is that China is allowed to let certain regions stand in for the performance of the entire nation. Though their results were reported separately, only three Chinese regions – Shanghai (top-ranked in all three categories), Taipei (3rd in Math, 11th in reading, 21st in science), and Hong Kong (4th in math, 4th in reading, 5th in science) -- were included in the latest PISA results. What if the same policy applied in the US, where we could cherry-pick the results of three states and exclude the other forty-seven? While our overall performance would not put us tops in the world, it would dramatically increase our rankings in each tested category.

So, what would those stalwart US states be? While not providing a perfect apples-to-apples comparison, Free Enterprise -- a business tools website sponsored by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce -- analyzed data from ACT, the College Board and the US Chamber of Commerce Foundation’s annual Leaders and Laggards state-by-state report card in creating an overall academic assessment of each US state (not just subject-specific competitiveness scores, ala PISA). According to a Free Enterprise infographic, the top US states in overall academic proficiency are, from 1-10: Massachusetts, New Jersey, Vermont, Connecticut, Maryland, Virginia, Minnesota, Colorado, Pennsylvania and New Hampshire.

By digging deeper into the Free Enterprise analysis, I found that if Massachusetts were allowed to report subject scores independently -- much the way that, say, Shanghai is allowed to do so -- the Bay State would rank 9th in the world in Math Proficiency, tied with Japan, and on the heels of 8th-ranked Switzerland. In reading, Massachusetts would rank fourth in the world, tied with Hong Kong, and not far behind third-ranked Finland.

Moreover, in reading, Vermont would be tied for fifth with Singapore, ahead of such perennial PISA stalwarts as New Zealand, Japan, Canada, Australia and Belgium.

According to a separate international test, Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) -- which tests 8th-graders, instead of PISA's 15-year-olds-- Massachusetts ranks second only to top-ranked Singapore in global measures of science competency.

Naturally, it's also relevant to look at how the worst-performing US states compared to their international peers. According to Free Enterprise, the bottom 10 performing US states (the list includes the District of Columbia) are, from best to worst: Nevada, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Hawaii, Alabama, West Virginia, New Mexico, Louisiana, the District of Columbia and Mississippi. At 14% proficiency in math, Mississippi is on par with Bulgaria, Trinidad and Tobago, and Uruguay. At 8% math proficiency, DC is on par with Kazakhstan, Mexico and Thailand.

The conclusions I draw from this data are as follows. First, it is unfair to allow nations like China to cherry-pick which provinces, municipalities or regions will submit results in international tests of academic proficiency. Such tests are supposed to measure the competency of students in nations taken as an aggregate. In addition, enabling China to selectively submit – but not allowing any other other country to do so – makes Chinese results suspect at best, and fraudulent at worst.

Finally, there are dramatic differences in educational performance by state and region in the US. Clearly, the Northeast – with six of the top ten states in overall academic proficiency – is doing something right on multiple levels. And clearly the traditional South – with five states in the bottom 10 –- is doing something fundamentally wrong. Then again, maybe demographic and other non-academic factors are at play here.

In the Comments area below, I am eager to learn what you think are the academic strategies, policies, attitudes and other factors that put the Northeast – Massachusetts in particular – at the top of the American academic heap.

-- James Marshall Crotty