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Contents | Executive Summary | How to obtain this publication | Additional information
The following OECD assessment and recommendations summarise Chapter 5 of the Economic survey of the United States, published on 29 May 2007.
Contents
Primary and secondary education outcomes are unsatisfactory
A country’s ability to compete in an ever more integrated world economy crucially depends on a highly educated workforce. It is thus a matter of concern that US students are outperformed in international tests by their peers in many other countries. It is also a concern that many students seem underprepared for work and higher education. Although large achievement gaps persist between population groups, performance is broadly unsatisfactory, including affluent and academically successful students, and hence appears to reflect above all system level weaknesses. Available evidence does not unambiguously establish the reasons for this. This Survey focuses on one partial explanation, the role played by academic standards, curriculum and examinations, which are undemanding by international comparison. These weaknesses appear to be linked to the combination of the highly decentralised character of education delivery and the lack of central steering related to learning objectives and assessment. Other factors thought to be related to student achievement, including teaching quality and school choice, are not discussed in this Survey.
Academic standards need to become more challenging
While responsibility for education lies primarily with states and local authorities, the federal government can play a role by making financial support conditional on the achievement of certain objectives. Federal legislation – the No Child Left Behind Act of 2002 calls for annual testing and greater accountability. In particular, it requires states to establish clear contents standards and thresholds for adequate yearly progress against which performance can be assessed. Preliminary indications, including test results, assessments of educational observers and international experience, are consistent with it raising school performance and narrowing achievement gaps. The No Child Left Behind Act is in general well conceived and should be re authorised. But it could be strengthened. For instance, it would be desirable to extend the legislative framework of standards, assessment and accountability through high school. Although the federal government cannot set standards, it could strengthen incentives for states to adopt more challenging standards. Indeed, standards by which performance and yearly progress is evaluated are very low in some states. States and school districts need to implement more challenging curricula and levels of performance. Advanced Placement and the International Baccalaureate provide models of standards that could be adopted more widely. As tests are often focusing on the wrong things, states need to align tests more closely with curriculum and expected levels of performance. Moreover, No Child Left Behind should require the states to implement curriculum based external exit exams.
How to obtain this publication
The Policy Brief (pdf format) can be downloaded. It contains the OECD assessment and recommendations but not all of the charts included on the above pages.
The complete edition of the Economic survey of the United States 2007 is available from:
- SourceOECD for subscribing institutions and many libraries
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OLISnet, under "Publication Locator", for government officials with accounts ( subscribe)
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Additional information
For further information please contact the US Desk at the OECD Economics Department at eco.survey@oecd.org. The OECD Secretariat's report was prepared by Hannes Suppanz and Peter Tulip under the supervision of Patrick Lenain.
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