At an invitational briefing, entitled “Losing Our Edge: Are American Students Unprepared for the Global Economy?” Andreas Schleicher, head of the Indicators and Analysis Division for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, shared new evidence that 15-year-old U.S. students continue to perform, in science and math, at levels below the average of those in other developed countries. However, he chose to focus his talk on effective practices in those countries that rank the highest or have shown marked recent improvement.

“I want to put an emphasis on countries that show us what is possible in education — in regards to both excellence and equity,” Schleicher explained. The event, held Dec. 5 at the Asia Society, was jointly hosted by the Asia Society, the Alliance for Excellent Education, the Business Roundtable and the College Board.

The 2006 study measured fundamental scientific knowledge, the ability to extrapolate and apply knowledge and draw evidence-based conclusions. Schleicher talked about Poland as an example of a country that is moving up in the rankings. In 2000, Polish students’ science performance ranked clearly below that of United States’ students and below the average for developed countries.

Polish students now outperform U.S. students and are above the OECD average. In 1999, Poland enacted education reform, Schleicher explained. “They began to pay attention to their rigid, stratified education system and abandoned low-level and vocational schools.” In six years, Poland’s average performance increased by 28 points on the Program for International Student Assessment’s scale, the equivalent of one school year ahead in ability.

Schleicher also discussed what the international findings teach us about equity in education and the relationship between socioeconomic background and learning outcomes. Many countries succeed at providing high-quality and equitable distribution, he said. Less than 10 percent of the variation in student performance was explained by student background in five of the seven countries with the highest mean science scores, (Finland, Canada and Japan and the partner countries/economies Hong Kong/China and Estonia). The United States was in the group of countries that had the highest correlation between background and performance.

Schleicher cited top-ranked Finland as having an education system where every school succeeds. He said the top-performing countries prove that you not only can run successful schools, but entire systems. Among the predictors of student success was the combination of high ambition (when parents, teachers and schools have high expectations for student performance) and universal standards. Also necessary is strong support for teachers through access to best practices and quality professional development.

In Finland, teaching is a well-respected and knowledge-rich profession, with strong ongoing professional development and autonomy in the classrooms. They have nine applicants for each teaching post. “The biggest mistake is to let anybody become a teacher, because it becomes an option for those with few options,” Schleicher said.

In his remarks, College Board President Gaston Caperton said: “My concern in this country is that we’re not paying enough attention to our teachers. We’re not paying them well enough and not investing in training. This is a real stumbling point for the United States.”

“I agree with Gaston,” Schleicher said. “The quality of an education system cannot exceed the quality of the people who work there.”