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Margaret Spellings in the Washington Post: Student Test Scores Depend on Accountability

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Learn more about Hannah Abney.
Hannah Abney
Chief Communications Counselor
George W. Bush Presidential Center

In case you missed it, the Washington Post published an op-ed by Secretary Margaret Spellings, President of the George W. Bush Presidential Center,...

In case you missed it, the Washington Post published an op-ed by Secretary Margaret Spellings, President of the George W. Bush Presidential Center, on the link between student test scores and accountability in education.

In the piece, Secretary Spellings writes:

"This month, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development released its review of global educational achievement. The Program for International Student Assessment, or PISA, is one of the most comprehensive global school surveys, assessing half a million 15- and 16-year-olds every three years. This year’s results contain a profoundly important insight into what works in U.S. education reform.

At the start of 2000, U.S. students were average or below average. In 2012, their scoreswere almost exactly the same. Meanwhile, students in China, Singapore, South Korea, Japan and Hong Kong made steady gains, particularly in math and science.

While our recent scores are quite disheartening, they don’t tell the whole story. The message from education pundits has been that U.S. schools are stuck at mediocre. But had our students continued to improve in 2012 as they did in 2009, the picture of national education achievement would be much different."

Read more here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/student-test-scores-depend-on-accountability/2013/12/26/66bab856-6cba-11e3-a523-fe73f0ff6b8d_story.html