Mass. students outperform peers on international exam

Great job. Just another example of how this state is in fact far more advanced than most of the other cesspools we are stuck with ... despite what the far right may have to say about it

How do montessori schools fit in? Where do they stand?

What happens after the fourth grade to turn kids off about math and science???

I should be thankful with this amount of progress, albeit small.

I wonder how far in advance the school knew about the test?
Don't get me wrong, this is great news, but I know for an absolute fact that Harvard (not the university) teaches "to the test" and does anything it can to score well. WIthout going into details, the boundaries are really pushed.
These sort of tests make me wonder about the quality of education, if children are being taught just to regurgitate rather than think creatively.

Yay! Massachusetts!!!
Ahhh...the advantages of living in a totally blue state. We have our priorities straight here.

The liberal agenda must be stopped! Our students will be the healthiest, best educated people on the planet if we don't act soon!

It frustrates me that the entire focus of Massachusetts education is doom and gloom and millions are spent on MCAS when we do so unbelievably well as compared to the rest of the US and World.

I think the kids who are struggling to meet standards would be 1,000 times better off if the state would use that money to help them meet standards instead of constantly barage us with more and more tests to prove they haven't met them.

If MA is doing this on its own, then maybe it really is "untied" States...

Great news, but why was Massachusetts a separate "country", did we pay extra for this? Is that why it was 600k? I'm a huge proponent of the MCAS, but why spend additional funds (and time) on another test? $166/test?

3,600 students in 95 schools = less than 38 kids per school. That's two classes. Did every class at that grade participate or did they "randomly" select the best classes. If we are averaging just two classes per grade level in our schools, let's start consolidating schools to save some cash and focus the limited building budgets on the best facilities.

I'm curious to know how home schooled children would fare in this exam.

I think this is great news, but I wouldn't get too carried away congratulating the educational establishment. Mostly what this shows is that Massachusetts is one of the richer corners of the planet. Affluent kids tend to perform better on tests, and children in Massachusetts on average are among the most affluent anywhere.

The article does not say if these are public school students or private school students. Does anyone know? The last sentence of the article says the results were released at a school in E. Boston, which I assume is public. So can I assume this ranking applies to public schools only? This is important to me, because I was thinking about putting my kid in a private school. But if the public schools are doing this well..... then I might just leave her where she is.

How can Mass. be 4th but the USA is 11th...? Talk about a meaningless statistic. I'm sure there are states/provinces in the top 10 countries that would blow Mass. away. Don't try to obscure reality with contrived statistics.

Thank you Mr. Bush.

Your focus on education is paying off as you said it would. You will be missed.

America has innovation and creativity, something
Asian countries tend to lack. Kudos to all the top performers, whichever countries are on top. Education is key to the future of any country and success should be something to strive for

I'm so proud of our students, teachers, administrators and elected officials who made this happen through a consitent, relentless effort to provide a cutting edge education to the children in the Commonwealth. And once we're done getting rid of "standardized test teaching" in favor of critical thinking skills we will be tops in the non-science and math areas too.

My daughter attends a middle/high school that is dedicated to the teaching of math and science. In the 9th grade, she out-scored 91% of all 10th graders who took the PSAT nationwide in mathematics. My kid is not a genius. She's a little smarter than average. But it's the teachers and the effort of her school's administration that has achieved these results. She has 2 hours of mathematics a day. What Massachusetts is doing is amazing. Sure we can do better, but it's still a great achievement. If we can do it here in Massachusetts, so can the rest of the country.

I take the results the exact same way I take the "bad news" results of MCAS and various other standardized tests; with a huge grain of salt.
Who writes the tests? Who grades the test? What do the tests measure? Have the students spent too much/too little time practicing just for this test?
How much school time was spent taking the test? Did all students take the test? Good news is always welcome, and I hope these results accurately reflect the state of our schools, but there are just too many other results from too many other tests....

Once more, a shining example of the dedication of our teachers, and the aptitude of our students.

oh Please what do 4th graders know. Highscool is where these tests should count. where does Massachusetts stand on that?

God Bless the MCAS exams. By finally holding the left-wing education establishment to some reasonable standards, we've tremendously improved the future for our children. Let's not let the teacher unions undo all the progress we've made. Continue to support the MCAS

How "random" was the school selection? Who came up with the list of schools that would participate? And does performance as a fourth grader translate to differences in career/salary as an adult? Maybe we should focus less on exams and more on the high drop out rate and need for students to pursue interests that will lead them to satisfying careers - be it vocational or professional.

If this is the thing we have to brag about, is there any reason to brag at all?

So, the kids are doing just fine in this bluest of blue, left liberal state with same-sex marriage. I guess the doomsayers are going to have to find something else to complain about!

Not bad considering US students go to school only 180 days out of the year compared to Japan which has a 243 day school year. Imagine the outcome if we add 20 days to the school year. We would then equal The Netherlands with an even 200 day school year.

I'm waiting on the NAEP exams, the so-called nation's report card. We were #1 in 2004 and 2006 under Gov. Romney, in both English and Math. I'm curious to see how we're doing under Deval Patrick, who has eased up on standards and clamped down on charter schools.

Our 4th graders are doing very well. That's good news.

But what about all of the other students? This report seems to downplay the results of the eighth graders. And the testing isn't performed on other grades or high school students.

I suspect MA (and the US) would fare poorly when compared to International students.

davdev...I'm sure those "cesspools" you refer to are inhabited and governed by what you call the "far right." Your "progressive " attitude proves the elitist ignorance that prevails among the denizens of the People's Commonwealth. The math performance is great. Too bad your state disregards basic decency and the US constitution at every opportunity. One thing is certain in Massachusetts; if you are white, middle class and employed, you are at the bottom of the totem pole.

If we could scrub it clean like Singapore...and I mean squeeky...

davdev,
Like you, I'm glad to hear that our educators and students are excelling. Hopefully these kids are also learning not to regard other regions, American or foreign, as cesspools.

hear, hear!!! some good news to report....I am sick to death of hearing how far we are behind the rest of the world when I *know* we have some pretty smart kids in this state and in this country.

Great job kids - keep up the great work.

So...we can beat the world in these international math and science tests yet many can't pass the MCAS? What does that say about the MCAS???

Mass must have some way of knowing the material on the test. Just another example of teaching to the test. The school departments have been doing this for years with the MCAS. We are not any smarter then the rest of the country.

What has the far right got to do with this? Far right parents send their kids to government schools too.

What a waste of $600,000! Imagine the good that schools could have done with that money instead of giving it away.

Great Job to the teachers and the students. Great PR for a state that is losing too many of its best and brightest to other states right now.

Maybe it will stop some of the whining about MCAS. Objective standards can be a good thing.

Which MA schools participated?

Did we cheat?

Did anyone take care to notice that the only other state in the US tested was Minnesota? I'd get off the high horse just a tad...

From Tennessee-- Yeah, but can they play football, which as everyone knows is the purpose for public Tennessee schools. Having sent my kids to Massachusetts schools much earlier, I found it commendable that when the budget got strained, they cancelled the athletics in favor of academics. Here in Tennessee, we'd certainly rather cancel academics in favor of athletics, and we have a senator who once directed our University system. The recently fired football coach is to be paid $6 million because he could not win at the game, and they now pay him $12,500 a month to make speeches. Shameful!!!!!

NOBODY'S THROWING TEACHER UNIONS UNDER THE BUS?

I wonder what are the names of those 95 schools? Are they all in affluent towns like Weston/Weslley/Winchester?

Not every state in the union has equal funding. As such, not all students have the same opportunities. In addition some states have populations with less income and families who can not provide their children with advanced education opportunities.

It's a fine thing that Mass. overall is a state that is well off and can provide educational opportunities. None the less, I do not think it is fair to spew hatred and bigoted comments toward those with less opportunities.

Even worse than a lack of education, is plain unjustified ignorance.

I recently moved from suburban Boston to the Virginia suburbs of DC.
My kids are in public school and I have found the VA public schools to be far superior in many aspects. There is also a no tolerance policy that is enforced with regards to any disruptive behavior. The arrogance of the comments here is just overwhelming.

As a Real Estate agent doing business in this state that is good news. Move to Mass and your kids will be smarter....works for me. I will be handing this article out at my open house this weekend. Thanks for the positive news!!!!!!!!!!

As a Real Estate agent doing business in this state that is good news. Move to Mass and your kids will be smarter....works for me. I will be handing this article out at my open house this weekend. Thanks for the positive news!!!!!!!!!!

Awesome!! This is really great news.
I attended Catholic schools in MA, and I think the public school kids got much, MUCH better science and math education than we did. For some reason, the Catholic schools have an undeservedly good reputation (partly because they aren't held accountable by state testing).

I think we already knew that Mass. is ahead of other regions and countries for various reasons, not the least of which is educated parents. Couldn't the $600K be put to better use though?

I think there should be more caning like in Singapore, that will get the grades up. Maybe bamboo under the finger nails for the disruptive students like in Japan.

Why do people have to bring politics into this? The kids and teachers are doing very well. Leave it at that. Or should we spend some more money and find out what side of the fence the kids parents are on....

And just which 95 schools are we talking about? This data is meaningless unless the sample is representative of all socioeconomic and racial/cultural groups. I bet it isn't.... (And no, I am not an opponent of testing - quite the reverse.)

Without MCAS, MA would probably be way behind where they were. When teachers are given no measuring stick, a student's "success" can be interpreted different ways. But when guidelines (more basic and traditional in nature) are followed, achievement can be measured.

The far right is the REASON the scores are so high!

#13 hits the nail on the head!

"America has innovation and creativity, something
Asian countries tend to lack. Kudos to all the top performers, whichever countries are on top. Education is key to the future of any country and success should be something to strive for"

You sir, are an idiot. Try looking up 'innovation' and 'creativity' again, then do some homework, before stereoyping Asia as lacking in those areas.

It is asserted that the schools tested were chosen randomly. Can this be confirmed? Is the list of schools available.?

Thank you Obama for lowering gas prices and for increasing the quality of education. Long live blue states. Wait, what? I believe this article is stating that this happened under Bush's watch and please don't over look Romney who was recently the governor. This increase in education didn't just happen over night.

Having said that, congratulations Mass. That's great. Let's try to be nonpartisan and get the rest of the country on the say page.

I see that people say certain towns "teach to the test" If the test measures the right things, that is ok with me. It even makes sense - teach the most relevant information and then measure the knowledge.

We should get some idiot right-wingers in here to redesign the science curriculum! Creationism will bring that score down a bit!

These results prove nothing. Massachusetts has always had one of the highest test scores in the nation. It says nothing about the United States. In addition it is in high school and college where the Asian Academic powerhouses out teach students in the United States. Tests from fourth-grade mean nothing if students in Japan and China learn Calculus in 9th grade and students in the United States don't get this education until their senior year.

Wheres Texas.. Dead last?

We came in 1st in the US, out of two states. Until I see the list of schools I will not believe it was 'random".

Where's South Korea and Japan?

Uh, duh, how many engineers in MA? This doesn't mean jack as far as MA being a bunch of far left fools. Thanks for Barney Frank, John Kerry and Ted Kennedy.

TEST

My daughter was one of those 4th graders. She's glowing with the news! Congratulations teachers and students. Let's keep the focus on science going. We desperately need scientists, researchers, thinkers and visionaries to secure and strenghten America's leadership and know-how.

"How can Mass. be 4th but the USA is 11th...? "
Hey nash are from Mass? If so you are what statisticians call an "Outlier"

Clearly these kids could have been doing something important, like canvassing for Democratic candidates, or making posters for GLBT Appreciation day or something, instead of wasting time taking some stupid exam, which was no doubt hopelessly biased against the disadvantaged in some way or another. Boo on the right wing meritocrats who came up with this bad idea of having the state of Mass participate as a "nation" unto its own.

"Who cares, it's just 4th graders"???

It matters because the focus should be, and there has been great initiative in MA, on early childhood education. The early concepts like algebra and geometry are introduced, they easier and sooner they are mastered at the Middle/High School level, where they students can learn even more and better things because they aren't still learning algebra and geometry.

My 3rd grader is learning how to take area and perimeter, even though he doesn't know he's doing geometry. They have been counting coins and learning about money, not knowing it is laying the foundation for fractions and decimals later on. My 6th grader is solving for "x". When did you take algebra in school? I know for me in was 9th or 10th grade.

You people poo-pooing this are such kill joys. Everyone complains are kids aren't learning and but when given some good results have to pick it apart and discredit it. Do anyone making comments like, "Oh MA schools must have had the material" and "Teachers just teach to the test"--Do YOU have any young children in public schools right now? I went to my 6th grade daughter's honors breakfast this morning. 94 students on honor roll, 2/3's of them on Principal's List with an A- or better. The schools in Millis are doing some amazing things right now. There is huge focus on writing, where they cross disciplines. The teachers in each grade work with a team approach. They meet daily to discuss the students and the curriculum. And yes, they do do practice MCAS questions, but they are not "taught to the test."

And why do we think our schools are not good?

The reason why MA entered this study is that it already consistently beats out all other states in math (and English for that matter) on national exams like the NAEP test. But what's the relevence if MA is the best state of a mediocre lot? The new results show that MA students are not only the best in the nation, but nearly the best in the world in math and science.

This test suffers greatly from "Selection Bias", in my opinion - only certain 'unnamed' schools participated, as well as, I am sure certain, 'selected' kids to take the test.
The fact the fourth graders did well, is fine, but almost meaningless. By the time they hit Middle and High School, they have lost whatever motivation they had, and are now subjected to teachers who either don't care, or are unqualified in the subject matter. My kids had Math from the football coach, as they had noone else on staff to teach it. A travesty. Good for the fourth graders ...hope they fare better.

Oh yeah?

What's the combined percentage of kids from Russian, Indian, Chinese, and Korean immigrant families , plus Jewish-American kids, among those 4 and 8 graders? If it's 10% or more I'm not at all surprised that the scores have gotten better.

Don't worry, the next generation will be as dumb and shallow as most of the rest of American-born kids. And I don't blame the kids. It's the parents who shouldn't have been allowed to have them.

Comment 39 from Hello -- you clearly flunked reading comprehension.

Minnesota was the only other state INDEPENDENTLY TESTED (as if it were a country). The US as a whole was also tested, and the comparison is being made between the pan-US results and the Massachusetts results. Yes it is impressive and encouraging that Massachusetts students outperformed US averages by so much. To bad the same cannot be said for many commenters on this board.

The kids, their teachers, and appropriate school administrators should get a day off, for crissakes! Let's reward good performance, in this case world class, and to thank them for making us proud of them.

What a waste of American taxpayers money. Did the test test the students knowledge of God? or are they becoming atheists like the Satanocialist nations that get the really high marks? Why do we need to spend millions of dollars to test that LIEberal kids are on track to grow up and spread more lies about Evilution and Global Warming. Who cares how smart the Satanocialist countries get. They don't have God on their side, so they will never compare to America.

As the old saying goes, "success has many parents, failure is an orphan"

I am not ready to give all teachers a pat on the back. In our town, my son found that one of the science teachers knew less than the students. Some, and maybe many, deserve credit, but not all.

There are other factors to consider.

1. Educated parents often expose their kids to learning opportunities outside of school. Massachusetts has a lot of educated people and some of the best universities in the country.

2. Massachusetts has a higher average IQ than the rest of the country ergo we have intelligent kids.

3. Probably because of # 1 and #2 above and because of generous contributions we have an outstanding science museum with great education programs for kids.

4. We don't have as many Evangelists living here....not so many teaching their kids that the world is only 6000 years old and people lived at the same time as dinosaurs.

For those who would give the Bush administration any credit for any of this, I can only say (when I stop laughing) that they should compare the scores in red states with that of the blue states.

These students and teachers should be congratuated on a job well done. The scores are impressive and worthy of praise.

Unfortunately, many of the comments are looking for something negative or pointing out some sort of flaw. What has happened to make people so jaded and convinced that conspiracies abound? Be positive! There is enough negativity else where!

The results show that a group of students from Massachusetts (not yet identified) scored well on this test. What schools, how were they selected, and how were the students chosen who participated on the test? I do not believe any conculsions can be drawn without knowing all of this information.

Hopefully the Globe will report the specifics on the test group. We should celebrate success where it occurred and share those practices with all schools in the commonwealth..

Happy to see the same MTA members who whined about No Child Left Behind suddenly taking credit for it. Let me guess, if they get just a little more $$ we can avoid the Armageddon occurring in the other 49 states? I'm guessing that hypocrisy has a prominent place in local lesson plans.

Clearly this is good news and it doesn't matter if the left or right contributed to it. The only issue is the gap in performance is not sustained as the eighth grade scores are much closer to a number of other countries. Interacting with many high school students from upscale towns outside of an academic setting leaves me appalled at the lack of basic science knowledge and ability to write a coherent paragraph or two.

It is sad when peoples political biases make them unable to commend their own states children and teachers on a job well done!!

This is good news. I wonder why only 8.6% of high schools in Mass make it to the silver grade in US. None made it to Gold .

While I believe there should be a greater focus on education, I do not favor standardized testing at such an early age. Pushing the kids to do well teaches them that their value is based on what grade they make-- I still suffer from this lie. It can have the adverse affect of making them hate school because it's being shoved down their throats. Standardized testing is not a solid indication of where a student, school, or nation stands. This "victory" reminds me all too much of the push for math and science education to outdo the Soviets and all other international competition. Can't we let kids be kids and teach them how to love to read, how to express themselves in a paper, how to use numbers to find the answers, and to never stop using their imaginations?

massachusetts rocks on public education - look where we are with SAT scores nationally. We care deeply about education. I can compare this to my (happy) time in PA.

Now on this Trends test - what's up with Germany and Israel - I would have thought they would have done better.

Sally Parsons - the VA public schools are pretty weak - you should try the VA private schools.

I actually took part in this test as an 8th grader in Massachusetts. from what we were told they picked randomly from all schools in MA including public and private. I was in a charter school which is technically a public school located in Framingham. as for which students they picked to take the test out of the school it was just the highest and lowest level math classes. But I find this very interesting as I never received the results of the test but it is great to know that MA did great as a whole.

Published in the March 2006 issue of the journal Psychological Science, Roediger's study is co-authored with graduate student Jeffrey D. Karpicke, a research colleague in the Department of Psychology in Arts & Sciences.

In two experiments, one group of students studied a prose passage for about five minutes and then took either one or three immediate free-recall tests, receiving no feedback on the accuracy of answers. Another group received no tests in this phase, but was allowed another five minutes to restudy the passage each time their counterparts were involved in a testing session. Henry L. Roediger III

After phase one, each student was asked to take a final retention test presented at one of three intervals -- five minutes, two days or one week later. When the final test was presented five minutes after the last study or testing session, the study-study-study-study (SSSS) group initially scored better, recalling 81 percent of the passage as opposed to 75 percent for the repeated-test group.

However, tested just two days later, the study-only group had forgotten much of what they had learned, already scoring slightly lower than the repeated-test group. Tested one week later, the study-test-test-test group scored dramatically better, remembering 61 percent of the passage as compared with only 40 percent by the study-only group.

The study-only group had read the passage about 14 times, but still recalled less than the repeated testing group, which had read the passage only 3.4 times in its one-and-only study session.

"Taking a memory test not only assesses what one knows, but also enhances later retention, a phenomenon known as the 'testing effect,'" says Roediger.

"Our findings demonstrate that the testing effect is not simply a result of students gaining re-exposure to the material during testing because students in our repeated-study group had multiple opportunities to re-experience 100 percent of the material but still produced poor long-term retention. Clearly, testing enhances long-term retention through some mechanism that is both different from and more effective than restudy alone."

'Nuff said"

I love the "Asians lack creativity" comments. Not only is it racist but also smacks of cultural ignorance. I wonder how many Chinese students are reading Robert Frost right now. Do you have knowledge of any Chinese artists and their shortcomings? Are you well read in Japanese poetry and find it pales in comparison to good old Louisa Alcott? Does the subtlety of Chinese Xiangsheng comedy not send you on the floor in fits of laughter? Gosh that is what we Americans tell ourselves when we get smoked by them in these studies.

4th Grade is key...well done, Massachusetts, you do have your priorities straight...and I have statistical data to back it up..here in California, a recent study of the graduating class of 2006 for the San Diego public school district looked at records of all students taking the test then going back to 1998 who had taken the state-wide high school exit exam (CAHSEE)...they found that by looking at both academic records and behavorial factors in the 4th grade, they could predict with over 99 percent confidence who would wind up passing the CAHSEE when they got to high school.. Keep it up..you are on the right track...no get some foreignlanguages in their too...in 10 years you'll be on top!..

It is now time to change the high school graduation requirements for all Seniors nationally. Education standards for all K-8 are required to take English/Reading/Writing, Math, Science, Social-Studies/Geography, and some even World Langauge. When a student reaches 9th grade the requirements change and every state is different. Graduation requirements have been around for 40 years. It is time to set 21st Century National Standards for high school graduation requirements beginning with the freshmen class of 2012 requiring all to take to take 4 years of English, Math, Science, Social Science and a World Langauge.