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Are We Smarter Than a (Russian) 4th Grader?

By Nancy Flanagan

I was having lunch with a professor at my local university recently, and talk turned to international comparisons of student achievement—the education policy scholar's mother lode for data analysis and prognostication these days. Just this week, in fact, Education Week reported that “top policy groups are pushing states toward international benchmarking as a way to better prepare students for a competitive global economy.”

I mentioned a column by Gerald Bracey in the February issue of Phi Delta Kappan , which made light of the latest Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) data . The professor snorted. “We can’t be buying into Gerald Bracey’s little feel-good stories,” she said. “We have to look critically at the enormous problems we have, and address these shortfalls in...