U.S. Scores Arranged by Percentage of Students in Poverty in the Schools
In the October 2007 17th Bracey Report on the Condition of Public Education published in Phi Delta Kappan, author Gerald Bracey arranged U.S. Scores based on the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) and the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS)concentrations of poverty within the schools (page 15).
Accordingly,
- U.S. schools with less than 10% of students living in poverty ranked 1st, 3rd and 1st on Reading (PIRLS), Math (TIMSS, 4th grade) and Science (TIMSS, 4th grade) respectively.
- U.S. schools with less than 10 to 25% of students living in poverty ranked 2nd, 7th and 2nd on Reading, Math and Science respectively. (1st, 6th and 1st if you exclude the U.S. scores noted above.)
- U.S. schools with 25 to 50% of students living in poverty ranked 6th, 11th, and 4th on Reading, Math and Science respectively. (4th, 9th and 2nd if you exclude the U.S. scores as above.)
- U.S. schools with 50 to 75% of students living in poverty ranked 8th, 12th, and 9th on Reading, Math and Science respectively. (5th, 9th and 6th if you exclude the U.S. scores as above.)
- U.S. schools with more than 75% of students living in poverty ranked last among the selected countries on all counts.
- Chart -
International comparisons touting all U.S. schools are failing clearly overstate their case when the data is disaggregated by poverty. The international data reflects the strong correlation between student achievement and poverty.
February 2007 - Child poverty in perspective: An overview of child well-being in rich countries - The most comprehensive assessment to date of the lives and well-being of children and adolescents in the economically advanced nations. The United Kingdom and the United States find themselves in the bottom third of the rankings for five of the six dimensions reviewed, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) (Press Release).
Among 20 OECD nations, the United States ranked:
- 18.0 Average ranking position (for all 6 dimensions)
- 17 Material well-being
- 21 Health and safety
- 12 Educational well-being
- 20 Family and peer relationships
- 20 Behaviours and risks
- NR Subjective well-being
- Last on an index of Relative Income Poverty: Percentage of children (0-17 years) in households with equivalent income less than 50% of the median.
- Fifth on an index of Percentage of working-age households with children without an employed parent.
# # #
How America Stands in the World in Protecting Children
Among industrialized countries, the United States ranks:
- 1st in military technology
- 1st in military exports
- 1st in Gross Domestic Product
- 1st in the number of millionaires and billionaires
- 1st in health technology
- 1st in defense expenditures
- 1st in the number of persons in prison or jail
- 12th in living standards among our poorest one-fifth of children
- 13th in the gap between rich and poor children
- 14th in efforts to lift children out of poverty
- 18th in the percent of children in poverty
- 22nd in low birthweight rates
- 25th in infant mortality
2005 - Stand Up For Children Now! State of America's Children Action Guide, Children’s Defense Fund Action Council (pdf page 10).
|