ERIC ED520013: Affirming the Goal: Is College and Career Readiness an Internationally Competitive Standard? Advance Brief for State Policymakers

2011·0.04 MB·English

by  ERIC

Affirming the Goal:
Is College and Career Readiness an
Internationally Competitive Standard?
Advance Brief for State Policymakers
According to MetLife’s March 2011 Survey of the American Teacher: Preparing Students for College and
Careers, approximately 93% of secondary school parents, 85% of secondary teachers, and 80% of business
executives believe college and career readiness should be a priority in our nation’s classrooms.
This college and career readiness priority is shared by many of our nation’s governors and chief state school
officers. Forty-four states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Virgin Islands have adopted the Common
Core State Standards, a state-led initiative that identifies what knowledge and skills in English language arts
and mathematics our students need to be successful in life after high school. ACT helped write those
standards, and our definition of college and career readiness is the one on which the Common Core State
Standards are based.
But do we know if ACT’s—and thus every state that has adopted Common Core State Standards—definition
of college and career readiness is not only the right goal, but also internationally competitive? Our newest
policy research report, Affirming the Goal: Is College and Career Readiness an Internationally Competitive
Standard?, attempts to answer this question. Below are key takeaways from the report
What does college and career readiness really mean?
ACT defines college and career readiness as the acquisition of the knowledge and skills a student needs to
enroll and succeed in credit-bearing, first year courses at a postsecondary institution (i.e., two- or four- year
colleges, trade or technical schools) without the need for remediation. The level of knowledge and skills
needed for college readiness is comparable to that needed for workforce training programs for those jobs that
offer salaries above the poverty line, are projected to grow in the future, and offer opportunities for
advancement.
How do we know if our college and career readiness definition is internationally competitive?
ACT conducted a comprehensive analysis of the assessment results of 2,248 US tenth-grade students from 77
high schools across the U.S. who took a special administration of the Programme for International Student
Assessment (PISA), which is an international assessment for 15-year olds, and PLAN®, ACT's tenth-grade
college and career readiness assessment. The analysis identified the PISA score equivalents to PLAN’s college
and career readiness benchmark scores in reading and math. From this, we determined if U.S. college and
career readiness performance standards are internationally competitive by comparing them with the
performance of the highest performing nations.
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FIGURE 1
Tenth-Grade College and Career Readiness Performance Benchmark in Reading
Compared to the Performance of Countries on PISA 2009 Reading
Shanghai-China 556 Significantly above the
Korea 539
College & Career Readiness
Finland 536
Benchmark
Hong Kong-China 533
Singapore 526
Canada 524
New Zealand 521
Japan 520
519 US College & Career Readiness Benchmark
Australia 515
Netherlands 508
Belgium 506
Significantly below the
Norway 503
College & Career Readiness
Estonia 501
Benchmark
Switzerland 501
Poland 500
Iceland 500
United States 500
Liechtenstein 499
Sweden 497
Germany 497
Ireland 496 Not significantly different
France 496 from the OECD average
Chinese Taipei 495
Denmark 495
United Kingdom 494
Hungary 494
OECD average 493
Portugal 489
Macao-China 487
Significantly above or
Italy 486
below the OECD average
Latvia 484
Slovenia 483
Greece 483
Spain 481
Czech Republic 478
Slovak Republic 477
Croatia 476
Israel 474
Luxembourg 472
Austria 470
Lithuania 468
Turkey 464
Dubai (UAE) 459
Russian Federation 459
Chile 449
Serbia 442
Bulgaria 429
Uruguay 426
Mexico 425
Romania 424
Thailand 421
Trinidad and Tobago 416
Colombia 413
Brazil 412
Montenegro 408
Jordan 405
Tunisia 404
Indonesia 402 Note: The data in this figure are adapted from OECD,
Argentina 398 PISA 2009 Results: Executive Summary (Paris:
Kazakhstan 390 Author, 2010). The US college and career readiness
benchmark value is based on ACT analysis.
Albania 385
Qatar 372
Panama 371
Peru 370
Azerbaijan 362
Kyrgyzstan 314
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000
Average PISA 2009 Reading Score
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FIGURE 2
Tenth-Grade College and Career Readiness Performance Benchmark in Mathematics
Compared to the Performance of Countries on PISA 2009 Mathematics
Shanghai-China 600 Significantly above the
Singapore 562
College & Career Readiness
Hong Kong-China 555
Benchmark
Korea 546
Chinese Taipei 543
Finland 541
Liechtenstein 536
Switzerland 534
530 US College & Career Readiness Benchmark
Japan 529
Canada 527
Netherlands 526
Macao-China 525
New Zealand 519
Belgium 515
Australia 514 Significantly below the
Germany 513 College & Career Readiness
Estonia 512 Benchmark
Iceland 507
Denmark 503
Slovenia 501
Norway 498
France 497
Slovak Republic 497
Austria 496
OECD average 496 Not significantly different
Poland 495 from the OECD average
Sweden 494
Czech Republic 493
United Kingdom 492
Hungary 490
Luxembourg 489 Significantly above or
United States 487 below the OECD average
Ireland 487
Portugal 487
Spain 483
Italy 483
Latvia 482
Lithuania 477
Russian 468
Greece 466
Croatia 460
Dubai (UAE) 453
Israel 447
Turkey 445
Serbia 442
Azerbaijan 431
Bulgaria 428
Romania 427
Uruguay 427
Chile 421
Thailand 419
Mexico 419
Trinidad and 414
Kazakhstan 405
Montenegro 403
Argentina 388
Jordan 387
Brazil 386 Note: The data in this figure are adapted from OECD,
Colombia 381 PISA 2009 Results: Executive Summary (Paris:
Albania 377 Author, 2010). The US college and career readiness
Tunisia 371 benchmark value is based on ACT analysis.
Indonesia 371
Qatar 368
Peru 365
Panama 360
Kyrgyzstan 331
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000
Average PISA 2009 Mathematics Score
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They are indeed internationally competitive. In fact, our analysis affirmed: (1) the average scores of only four
countries were significantly higher than our projected benchmark scores in reading and in mathematics; (2)
that the performance standards of college and career readiness—and therefore the new Common Core State
Standards—are competitive with the highest performing nations in the world; and (3) because our projected
benchmark scores fell well within the average scores of the highest performing countries, college and career
readiness is the right goal for US education. (See Figures 1 and 2)
How would the U.S. fare if college and career readiness standards were fully adopted and
successfully implemented?
According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the
intergovernmental organization that sponsors the PISA assessment, average U.S. performance on PISA in
2009—as U.S. states implement their own disparate state education standards—was about the same as the
OECD average in reading , but lagged behind the OECD average in math. Out of the 65 countries who
participated in PISA 2009, average US performance fell below 14 countries in reading and 30 countries in
math.
But if all states were to implement college and career readiness, using ACT’s—and the Common Core State
Standards Initiative’s—definition, ACT estimates U.S. performance would then be among the top ten
countries in the world in reading and in math. While this may not put the U.S. at the very top of the
OECD list, it would be a substantial improvement and a critical step in the U.S. regaining lost ground in
the globally competitive economy.
For more information please contact:
Jon Erickson
Interim President, Education Division ACT, Inc.
[email protected]
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