cherdanno, on Apr 22 2009, 08:58 PM, said:
Adam, do you have references for what you wrote, or are you just speculating? I would find it unlikely that PISA excluded students at private schools - but of course I could be wrong.
I did not read the 300 pages of notes on this exam.
My observations are just:
(1) I see a lot of these test-based comparative claims about education in different countries, and the claims frequently contradict each other.
(2) I went to public school in the US, and was never given any of these comparative exams, even though many results of such exams were published from the period when I was in high school. Similarly, none of my classmates ever participated in such exams.
(3) My girlfriend teaches at a private school in Los Angeles. Her students are not given these exams.
(4) While it is quite possible (even likely) that the test results are based upon some form of random sampling rather than trying to test a significant percentage of students, sampling is also frequently suspect (how do you generate a truly random sample from the population).
In fact it's not even clear to me how such a test can be given; language differences can easily make a question easier or harder (even a math question can be easier or harder based on phrasing). So I find the whole endeavor somewhat dubious.
Adam W. Meyerson
a.k.a. Appeal Without Merit