New OECD Report Highlights Economic Impact of Low Performance at U.S. Schools

 

WASHINGTON DC, February 10, 2016 -- Over a quarter of students in the United States are low performers in math, a new analysis of PISA data shows. 

“Low Performing Students: Why they fall behind and how to help them succeed” says that around 1 million 15-year-olds in the United States, equivalent to 26% (OECD average: 23%), fail to achieve level 2 in math. Level 2 is considered the baseline level of proficiency that is required to participate in modern society. When a large share of the population lacks basic skills, a country’s long-term economic growth is compromised, says the OECD report.

While the share of low performers in math and reading in the US remains unchanged since the PISA test in 2003, the share of low performers in science actually decreased by 6% between the 2006 and 2012 PISA tests. Still, in 2012 more than 500,000 US students were low performers across all three subjects analyzed (math, reading and science).
 
Analysis of the results from OECD PISA tests between 2003 and 2012 reveals that few countries have seen improvements among low performers. However countries as economically and culturally diverse as Brazil, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Poland, Portugal, Russian Federation, Tunisia and Turkey did manage to reduce their share of low performers in math during that period. This shows that reducing the share of low performers is possible anywhere, given the right policies and the will to implement them, says the OECD.

“The social and economic gains from tackling low performance dwarf any conceivable cost of improvement,” said Andreas Schleicher, OECD Director for Education and Skills. “Education policy and practice can help overcome this issue. It needs to be made a priority and given the necessary resources so that every child can succeed at school.”

Poor performance is not the result of any single risk factor, but rather of a combination and accumulation of various barriers and disadvantages that affect students throughout their lives.

Key findings for the United States:

In the U.S., the likelihood of low performance in math is higher for students who are socio-economically disadvantaged and repeated a grade.  

A socio-economically disadvantaged student is almost 6 times more likely to be a low performer than an advantaged student, after accounting for demographic and education background covariates. Some 41% of disadvantaged students in the U.S. were low performers in math in 2012, while only 9% of advantaged students were.   

Students who have repeated a grade in the U.S. were almost 4 times as likely to be low performers in math (53% of them were low performers) as students who had never repeated a grade (20% of them were low performers).
 
In the U.S., as on average across OECD countries, low-performing students skip days of school more often, spend less time doing homework, and are less perseverant than better-performing students.  
 
In 2012, 28% of low performers in math skipped school at least once were in the U.S. (OECD average: 23%). Among students performing at or above the proficiency baseline Level 2, 19% skipped at least a day of school (OECD average: 12%). 
 
In 2012, low performers in the U.S. spent an average of 3.7 hours per week doing homework (OECD average among low performers: 3.5 hours per week) while students scoring at or above the proficiency baseline Level 2 spent about 6.9 hours per week doing homework (OECD average among better-performing students: 5.3 hours).
 
Students in the U.S. are less likely to be low performers in schools where teachers are more supportive and have a higher morale, and also where there are less teacher shortages and more creative extra-curricular activities available for students. 
 
Students in the U.S. attending schools where math teachers have a lower morale are, on average, 21% more likely to be low performers than students who attend schools where teachers have a higher morale, after accounting for students’ and schools’ socio-economic status (OECD average: 7% more likely).
 
In the U.S., students attending schools where there are less creative extra-curricular activities available for students were, on average, 54% more likely to be low performers in math than students in schools where more of these activities were available, after accounting for students’ and schools’ socio-economic status (OECD average: 9% more likely).
 
For the United States, a country with a higher proportion of low performers in mathematics than the OECD average, tackling low performance is a challenge of major importance. Given the extent to which the profile of low performers varies across countries, tackling low performance requires a multi-pronged approach, tailored to national and local circumstances.

 An agenda to reduce the incidence of low performance can include several actions:
 
· Dismantle the multiple barriers to learning
· Create demanding and supportive learning environments at school.
· Provide remedial support as early as possible.
· Encourage the involvement of parents and local communities.
· Inspire students to make the most of available education opportunities.
· Identify low performers and design a tailored policy strategy.
· Provide targeted support to disadvantaged schools and/or families.
· Offer special programs for immigrant, minority-language and rural students.
· Tackle gender stereotypes and assist single-parent families.
· Reduce inequalities in access to early education and limit the use of student sorting.
· Policy makers, teachers, parents and students themselves all have an important role to play.
 

*******************************************
Note to editors:

Low performers are defined as students who fail to reach level 2 in the PISA survey. This means that they can answer questions that provide clear directions and single information sources and connections. However, they typically cannot make more complex uses of information and reasoning. For example, they struggle to estimate how much gas is left in a tank from looking at the gauge, or have difficulty understanding instructions on an aspirin bottle. Level 2 is considered the baseline level needed for young people to function effectively in today’s workplace and society.

For more information please contact Miguel Gorman (miguel.gorman@oecd.org) at the OECD Washington Center.