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【中文标题】全球教育危机中的一线曙光
【原文标题】Within A Global Crisis In Education, Some Hints Of Progress
【登载媒体】赫芬顿邮报
【原文作者】Peter S. Goodman
【原文链接】http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/23/global-education-crisis_n_4557171.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular
就像孩子手里拿着成绩单回家一样，一些国家最近拿到了“国际学生评估项目”，简称PISA通过对各个国家学生的测验得出的教育水平分数。对于不同的结果，有些国家的反应是庆祝，有些是服输，有些则是相互指责。
美国、法国、英国的教育者和政客哀叹他们令人失望的成绩，尽管自己手握令人羡慕的财富。他们看着东亚和东欧国家的成绩，想不明白为什么贫穷的国家利用更少的教育资源却可以取得这么高的成绩。
德国的教育者自认为满意，他们在取得上一次糟糕的成绩之后采取了一些措施，但和庆祝胜利还相距甚远。在波兰，领导人祝贺自己取得了突破性进展，优异的成绩加强了他们继续实施一系列有争议的改革的信心。
PISA成绩所造成的感情宣泄再一次引发了争论，这些数据是否真正说明了学校教育的质量。甚至PISA的组织者Andreas Schleicher也提醒到，这些数字被过分看重了。
他在接受《世界邮报》采访时说：“任何评价方式只能反映部分问题。数学、科学和文学是大部分知识的基础，但它们并不是全部所在。”
然而国家之间的分数比较，必然成为针对恰当的教育理念、社会公平性，以及文化、传统和阶级影响力的争论的起因。
除了那些引人注目的重要数字，测验结果还显示出大部分富裕国家存在的巨大不平等性，来自富裕家庭的学生成绩远远高出贫困家庭的学生。但结果还同时显示出，一些不那么富裕的国家利用精心设计的政策和方案，可以突破自身的限制，让学生取得极为优异的成绩。
Schleicher说：“PISA让我们知道一切皆有可能。我听到很多人说，糟糕的成绩都是贫困造成的。但我们同时看到很多贫穷的国家取得了非常好的成绩。”
《世界邮报》动员全球的编辑调查PIS成绩对几个国家的重大意义，这份报告让我们有机会看到哪些措施正在发挥作用，哪些问题必须马上着手解决。
点击查看大图。
美国：拖后腿的都是有钱人家的孩子
对美国来说，新一年的PISA测试结果表现平平，没有人对此感到意外。美国教育部长Arne Duncan指着成绩单说，这是“一幅教育停滞不前的写照”。
即使专家们已经习惯了美国令人失望的成绩，但美国学生与其它国家学生之间的差距依然令人震惊，已经有越来越多的人质疑这个国家在国际经济大环境中的竞争力。
美国15岁学生的人群，在最近一次2012年PISA测试中的成绩，与十年前相比毫无进步。在数学方面，他们在34个经济合作和发展组织的工业化成员国中排名第26位，阅读排名第17位。
美国人在某种程度上的比较差异愈加明显，这基本反映出一个国家的社会经济现实状况，也就是有超过22％的儿童生活在贫困中。富裕家庭的孩子依然比贫穷家庭的孩子成绩明显优秀，这造成了一种恶性循环，成绩好的孩子有更多的机会进入名校，从而获取待遇优厚的职业。
然而纵观PISA的数据，有很多大部分人口处于贫困状态的国家依然取得了长足的进步。在参加最近一次PISA测试的65个国家中，有40个国家的成绩比十年前有明显的提高。
而且，即使哪些富裕的美国学生也被其它国家的学生远远抛在后面。根据运作PISA的经合组织提供的信息，那些来自世界收入最高国家的学生的成绩，比不上其它20多个国家学生的成绩，包括斯洛伐克和新加坡。
作家Amanda Ripley刚刚出版一本新书《世界上最聪明的孩子》，其中讲述了美国高中学生参加海外学生交换计划的事情。她说：“人们对这样的比较感到心力憔悴，因为结果往往令人沮丧。贫穷是个大问题，但一些国家找到了消除贫困影响教育水平的方法，而我们还没有……我们有足够的数据证明改变是可以实现的。你不能继续绝望地等待，核心问题是，改变什么？”
分析数据的专家们被美国不平等的现象惊呆了，其它国家那些不那么占优势的年轻人似乎比美国的穷人受到了更好的教育。PISA组织者Andreas Schleicher指出，即使那些贫困人口数量非常高的国家，比如波兰，近年来的成绩也有飞速的提高。高收入且贫富差距不大的国家，即使是穷人学生占比较高的学校成绩也不错。
Schleicher说：“像芬兰这样的国家，它的教育投入不及美国。如果你出身相对贫穷，教育体制会为你有所倾斜。在美国，教育开始呈递减状态：如果你来自贫困地区，你进入一所穷人学校的可能性就非常大。”
目前还没有任何针对公平分拨教育资源的大规模改革方案，尽管“通用核心国家标准计划”可以对此稍做贡献。Schleicher说，46个州已经同意制定标准来提高美国学生的知识层次，但政治抗议者和实施中的问题或许会影响到这个承诺。
PISA数据还显示出美国学生被“天资比努力更重要”的观念所限制。在与PISA同时完成的一项调查中，15岁的学生人群被问到，数学成绩优秀的因素是什么。美国学生把成功归功于“天资”，而来自成绩更好的国家的学生们认为原因主要是“努力”。
英国：相互指责
在英国，PISA成绩让人们心烦意乱。尽管保守党和工党政府都为教育系统投入了大笔资金，但英国学生的科学成绩排名下降了两位到第21位，阅读和数学成绩也仅上升了两位，分别处于第26位和第23位。
然而英国并没有采取一些改善的计划，而是被排名搞得政客和教师之间相互推诿责任。教育部长Michael Gove说这是工党的责任；工党责怪政府，说学校政策是“失败的”；教育慈善机构责怪教师；教师工会把责任归咎为贫穷和PISA测试本身的问题。
一位达拉谟大学教授认为，英国成绩糟糕的主要原因是分数水分太大——这种愤世嫉俗的指责似乎对所有制定全国标准考试分数的国家都有借鉴意义。
自从1988年以来，在英国中学毕业统考中，取得满分的学生比例持续上升（在2012年稍有下降）。考试评估机构Ofqual在 2013年的一份报告中说，考题在过去十年里变得越来越容易了。
因此，政府在2012年9月宣布彻底改革考试体制，将在2015年用英语会考制度取代目前的中学毕业统考。补考名额将极为有限、降低硕士入学率、使用更“严格”的考题，期望以此来提升英国的学术标准。
目前判断政府教育改革对排名的影响还为时尚早，PISA项目协调员Andreas Schleicher说这些措施不会有“太多出人意料的效果”。
尽管全国教师工会说PISA成绩中没有体现不同学生的社会经济状况，但Schleicher说，如果考虑到学生家庭的收入差别，整体数据并没有显示出英国公立学校和私立学校成绩之间存在很大差距。
另一个工会组织“教师和讲师协会”认为PISA本身存在问题。
工会秘书长Mary Bousted说：“对排名的过分关注会得出错误的结论。更好的方法是集中提升孩子们的教育水平，让年轻人对学校以后的生活做好准备、充满信心。”
德国：“PISA打击”终于结束了
千禧年之初，德国学生糟糕的PISA成绩引发了公众的所谓“PISA打击”。当意识到他们这片孕育了诗人、思想家和工程师的土地竟然被其它国家超过那么多，德国人愤怒了。他们修订了国家教育法，教育研究部采取了多项改革措施来提升学生的成绩。
对德国学生来说，PISA打击意味着，更少的家庭作业时间和更多的在校学习时间，直到每天下午。那些练习足球和马术的学生现在要花更多的时间学习词汇，教育政策制定者认为数量必将转化为质量。
十多年之后，这样的策略似乎已经有了不错的效果：最近一次PISA成绩显示，德国第一次在所有科目上（数学、阅读、科学）超过经合组织国家的平均分。教育部长Johanna Wanka正式宣布胜利，说“PISA打击”已经结束。
但趋势并不像标题数字那样明显，15岁德国学生的数学成绩仅仅算是稍有改善。同时，20％学生的阅读能力依然处于平均水平之下，这样的状况从十年前一直持续到现在。从一些关键指标上来看，德国还远远算不上高质量教育的典范。
而且，这个国家依然在面对成绩下降的威胁。最新的PISA结果显示，对天才学生的教育投入依然不足。低水平学生的数量十年来有所减少，但高水平学生的数量并没有增加。
Dräger说：“我们还未能整合教育体制针对成绩较差和成绩较好学生的效果，社会给予的支持不能仅仅确保所有的学生都达到及格线。”
另外，德国的女孩在数学方面落后于男孩，而在阅读方面超过男孩。第一次PISA成绩显示，女孩平均分比男孩低9分，13年之后，这个差距增加到14分。
德国中规中矩的成绩的另外一个原因是德国大学中的教师培训项目。德国每个省都有自己的教育水平标准，教师之间的经验和资质千差万别。
帕绍大学的一名教授Norbert Seibert说：“教育仅仅是教师培训中很小的一方面。”
改善授课质量或许是提升学生水平的一个重要手段。
波兰：改革的信心
当波兰前教育部副部长Maciej Jakubowski得知整个国家在最近一次PISA中取得了优异的成绩之后，他长出了一口气。
十年前，PISA结果显示波兰学生的数学成绩与匈牙利和斯洛伐克相当，现在，他们与芬兰、加拿大和比利时平起平坐。在取得了各项学科的全面进步之后，波兰的学生已经远远超过了美国学生。
数字胜于雄辩，几十年来对波兰人民的智力和经济改革的质疑声终于平息了。
PISA协调员Andreas Schleicher说：“进步非常明显。”
过去十年里，波兰把数学成绩较差的人数从22％降低到14％，数学成绩优秀的人数从10％增加到17％。数学成绩在社会经济学十分位中平均分布，也就是说，富裕和贫穷的学生都基本上按相同比例提高了成绩。
对波兰的教育改革人士来说，出色的成绩让他们坚信，进步来自于强化推进在政治上有争议的一些变革措施。
仅仅一个月之前，非政府机构的请愿者强迫议会投票废除Jakubowski和其他一些人提倡的学校改革计划。这项计划旨在快速提升整个国家的教育水平，包括改变学校的组织架构、设置重点关注技能和思维方式，而不是死记硬背的课程。
改革人士利用PISA的成绩证明他们的方法是凑效的。
刚刚离开政府部门的Jakubowski说：“这出乎我们的意料之外，我们本来没有预计到这些新启动的措施有这么明显的效果，但似乎教师们的反应很迅速，学生们也立即适应了不同的学习方式。”
几十年来，波兰的教育体制一般会在早期给学生分类：最有希望的学生被推荐走传统教育路线；成绩较差的学生被建议走职业教育路线。
这样的体制在1999年发生了变化，波兰教育官员把学生的高等教育和职业道路分类推迟了一年。其中一个措施是建立中学教育制度，这被称为“Gimnazjum”，即所谓的“高级中学”。这些新的教育机构表明，学生们会有多一年的时间待在一起，学习同样的课程。据经合组织提供的信息，成绩较差的学生在这种安排下有更多的机会进入中学，最终考上大学。从1989年到2011年，接受高等教育的人口比例翻了4倍，从10％增长到41.2％。
在同一时间，波兰开发出一套新的全国核心基础课程，并取消了对教科书市场的管制，允许教师选择自己的课本。为了规范自由的授课体制，波兰在每学期结束时会举办标准化的考试。
华沙的尼古拉斯哥白尼双语学校校长Justyna Matejczyk说：“来自外部的考试促使教师和学生调整教学和学习方式，以适应新的形势。在初级高中任职的教师经常会面对一个崭新的年龄层，他们都有自身的行为和认知问题。”
2009年，政府再一次更新的课程，侧重于关键性思维能力、对事实的关注能力和记忆能力。所有课程的标准都基于分年龄段施教的理念，教师和学校可以自由地开发特定的课程来确保因材施教。
改革需要巨额的成本——在1999年到2009年之间，波兰的教育支出增加了104％。学校变得越来越自主，地方政府确定预算，校长可以决定教师的工资。整体来看，教师的工资翻了一倍，具备大学学历的教师比例也翻了一倍。
Schleicher说：“我们不大确定成绩显著提高的原因是否真的来自于这些改革措施，但这明显是个合理的解释。”
在波兰的教育改革实施了15年之后，依然存在着两极分化的态度。Jakubowski说：“我们很难改变已经延续了那么多年的行为。”政府的错误在于两套改革方案出台得太快了，没有充足的时间“说服人们认识改革的必要性，我们正在为此付出代价。”
Matejczyk说，最近所遭遇的大部分阻挠都来自传统派，以及围绕是不是应该让6岁的孩子上小学的问题。她虽然认为改革总体利大于弊，但她还提到波兰依然面临着班级规模过大，以及应当“进一步强调道德教育”的问题。
Jakubowski说：“PISA成绩说明我们有非常好的教师和非常好的学校。这虽然是政治层面的问题，但幸运的是结果印证了我们的设想，也让很多人相信降低中学门槛是个有效的措施。投票最终没有通过。”
西班牙：教育深渊
在西班牙，最新的PISA成绩就像一道伤口，汩汩冒出的血液榨干了西班牙的教育体制。
近年来的经济灾难让政府在与财政赤字搏斗的同时大幅削减公共教育支出，尽管改革人士敦促教师应当负起更大的责任，但PISA数据似乎说明学生没有任何进步。
西班牙学生的数学成绩在34个经合组织工业化国家中排名第25位，其阅读和科学成绩也远低于平均线。这种延续了多年的趋势让西班牙媒体充满了哀叹和愤怒的声音，各类专家粉墨登场，相互比拼谁对西班牙教育制度的批判更恶毒。
学生们拿回家的成绩单揭露了一个令人不安的现实，无论是南北地区之间，还是贫富家庭之间，成绩的差距都呈扩大的趋势。
国家教育部长Montserrat Gomendio说：“教育模式改革的问题还没有得到解决。”他准备着手为教育机构提供更自由的环境，并实施全国标准的考试机制。
PISA团队的分析师Pablo Zoido指出，成绩表明西班牙如果不想成为经合组织垫底的国家之一，“必须继续改革”。他主张采取一些提升教授水平的措施，这可以让西班牙大学更好地吸引“高水平的”学生。
“西班牙学生父母社团联合会”反对西班牙削减教育支出，说PISA数据是节俭政策所导致的恶果。
社团主席Jesús María Sánchez说，“如果依然保持前几年的投入力度，结果肯定不是这样。”削减预算导致了“更大程度的不平等”。
法国：三十年的不平等
如果说PISA数字揭露了一些问题，那么法国学生水平的下降必然是其中之一。数据显示在65个参与测试的国家中，法国排名下降了两位，处于第25位。
或许更让法国不安的现象是成绩的分布愈加不均衡。尽管高分学生的数量依然保持稳定，但在低分区挣扎的学生数量有所增加。
PISA报告中提到：“法国的社会经济背景与成绩之间的关系，比其它经合组织国家表现得都更加明显。如果你出身贫寒，那么你现在成绩出人头地的机会要小于2003年的时候。”
然而在即将上任的教育部长、社会主义者Vincent Peillon看来，糟糕的成绩或许也是件好事：它可以推动他在去年4月份提出的、以消除不平等现象为目的的一系列教育改革计划。
Peillon尤其力求增加幼儿入学的数量，PISA的数据说明这与学生的成绩密切相关。法国三岁儿童进入学校的比例，从2000年的30％降低到2012年的12％。Peilon现在要逆转这一趋势。
政府试图应对的另外一个问题是让学生留级的传统教育模式，这不但会加剧不平等性，还会给公众抨击教育制度提供口实。Peillon说他的目标是把留级学生数量减少一半。
从某种程度上说，Peillon仅仅是在延续1981年上台的社会主义总统弗朗索瓦•密特朗所实施的法国教育政策，不平等的现象依然没有消除。密特朗政府建立了所谓的“优先教育区”，给予额外的公共政策支持。三十多年之后，结果喜忧参半，区内的学校成绩飙升，但两极分化现象严重。
最新的PISA数据既证实了现实的情况，又提醒法国需要灵活性的政策来继续消除这个差异。
原文：
Like children headed home with their report cards, the nations of the globe recently received grades on the educational achievement of their students via the test known as the Programme for International Student Assessment, or PISA. Reactions ranged from celebration to resignation to recrimination, depending upon the results.
In the United States, France and Great Britain, educators and political leaders bemoaned another disappointing showing despite their enviable wealth. They looked to East Asia and Eastern Europe and sought to understand how poorer countries in these regions could achieve so much more with fewer resources.
In Germany, educators took a measure of satisfaction that they had arrested an alarming decline, though they were far from declaring victory. In Poland, where leaders congratulated themselves for a breakout performance, the impressive results reinforced a controversial set of reforms.
The unleashing of the latest PISA scores occasioned a familiar debate over the merits of reducing the quality of schooling to a data point. Even the man who coordinates PISA, Andreas Schleicher, cautions that the numbers can be taken too far.
"Any assessment is a partial reflection of what matters," he told The WorldPost. "Math, science and literacy are the foundation for most of the other things, but they're not everything."
Yet the nation-by-nation comparisons prove irresistible, serving as fodder for arguments over appropriate educational philosophy, social justice and the shaping influences of culture, custom and class.
Beyond the headline numbers, the results speak to widening inequality in much of the wealthy world, as students from affluent homes pull ever further away from impoverished peers. But they also underscore the degree to which thoughtful policies in less-endowed countries can transcend such limitations and deliver considerable student gains.
"PISA tells us what is possible," Schleicher said. "I hear from many people that poor performance is all about poverty. But we see a lot of countries with a lot of poverty get a lot of good results."
The WorldPost deployed its global newsroom to probe the significance of the results in several nations, producing this report with an eye toward highlighting what is working and what needs to be most urgently addressed.
UNITED STATES: Even The Wealthy Kids Lag
For the United States, another year of PISA data produced another middling showing, much to the surprise of no one. Pointing to the results, the U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan declared "a picture of educational stagnation."
Yet even as experts have grown accustomed to disappointing American achievement, the degree to which students from the United States now trail their counterparts made for something of a shock, provoking questions about the country's ability to compete in a global economy.
Among American 15-year-olds, performance on the 2012 PISA -- the latest survey -- showed virtually no improvement compared to a decade earlier. In math, they ranked 26th out of the 34 industrialized countries that are part of the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD), while in reading they registered 17th.
Americans have to some extent grown resigned to such comparisons, which largely reflect the socioeconomic realities of a country in which more than 22 percent of children live in poverty. The children of wealthier families continued to perform significantly better than their poorer peers, perpetuating a cycle of income inequity in which their better grades place them on a path to selective colleges and higher-paying careers.
Yet the overall PISA data reveals that plenty of countries in which large numbers of people are poor have managed to engineer significant improvements. Among the 65 countries that participated in the most recent PISA exams, 40 posted significantly higher scores than a decade earlier.
Moreover, even wealthier American students lag behind their peers worldwide. Those from households in the top quarter of incomes performed worse than their peers in more than 20 other countries, from Slovakia to Singapore, according to the OECD, which administers PISA.
"People get fatigued by these comparisons because it's depressing and demoralizing," said Amanda Ripley, an author whose recently released book, The Smartest Kids In The World, followed American high school students who partook in exchange programs abroad. "Poverty is a big deal but some countries have found ways to mitigate in ways that we have not ... We have enough data to show that change is possible. You can no longer throw up your hands. The real knot of it is, which changes?"
Experts parsing the data were struck by the story it told about American inequality -- how lesser-advantaged young people in some other countries seem to benefit more from education than poor Americans. As PISA coordinator Andreas Schleicher noted, even countries with high child poverty rates such as Poland have improved over time. And higher-income countries with less inequality have seen greater educational performance in poorer schools.
"In a country like Finland, which spends less on education than the U.S., if you come from a disadvantaged background, the system makes more of an investment in you," Schleicher said. "In the U.S., spending is regressive: If you grow up in a poor neighborhood, you're likely to go to a poor school."
No broad-scale reforms aimed at more equitably distributing resources are currently in play, though the Common Core State Standards Initiative may offer a partial remedy, Schleicher said: Forty-six states have agreed to learning standards that are designed to improve the application of knowledge among American students. However, political protests and implementation issues may imperil its promise.
The PISA data may also suggest that American students are hampered by cultural conceptions that value innate talent more than effort. On surveys conducted along with PISA, 15-year-olds were asked what makes them successful in math. American students pegged their success to "talent," while students in higher-performing countries were more likely to attribute their results to "effort."
GREAT BRITAIN: The Blame Game
For the United Kingdom, the PISA scores amounted to uncomfortable reading. Despite massive investment in the education system from both Conservative and Labour governments, England slipped five places in science to 21st in the world, while climbing only two places in reading and math -- to 26th and 23rd, respectively.
Yet instead of inspiring plans for improvement and change, the rankings merely resulted in politicians and teachers passing the blame around. Education Secretary Michael Gove said it was Labour's fault; Labour blamed the government, saying its school policy had "failed"; education charities blamed teachers; teachers unions blamed poverty and teachers found fault with the PISA tests themselves.
One Durham University professor cited the consequences of grade inflation as a reason for the U.K.'s lackluster performance -- a cynical accusation that tends to be heard whenever national standardized test scores are released.
Since 1988, the proportion of papers garnering top marks in the U.K.’s General Certificate of Secondary Education has steadily increased (though it dipped slightly in 2012). Research published in 2013 by exam watchdog Ofqual found that exams had become easier over the past decade.
As a result, in September 2012 the government announced an overhaul of the exam system and said it would replace the GCSE exams with the English Baccalaureate Certificate starting in 2015. Exam retakes will be limited, coursework cut down and "rigorous" exams introduced, in the hope of improving academic standards in England.
It is too early to see the impact of Gove's education reforms in the rankings, a fact underscored by PISA program coordinator Andreas Schleicher, who said there would be no "great surprises" for the U.K. within the data.
Although the National Union of Teachers was quick to blame socioeconomic differences among students for the PISA results, Schleicher noted that the data yielded scant differences between the U.K.'s state and private schools, after accounting for differing income levels of students.
Another union, the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, blamed the PISA tests.
"Focussing on rankings can lead to perverse outcomes," Mary Bousted, the union’s general secretary, told HuffPost UK. "A much better approach is to concentrate on improving children’s education and ensuring young people are well-equipped and confident for life beyond school."
GERMANY: The End of 'PISA Shock'
At the beginning of the new millenium, the poor performance of German students on the PISA tests triggered so-called "PISA shock" among the public. Outrage ensued as Germans considered the fact that their land of poets, thinkers and engineers had somehow managed to lag so far behind other countries. State educational laws were retooled, and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research pursued various reforms aimed at boosting achievement.
For German students, PISA shock consigned them to more hours at school than at home, staying there well into the afternoon. Even as student athletes travel to soccer practice or horseback riding, they now devote time to studying vocabulary. In short, educational policymakers bet that quantity would produce quality.
More than a decade later, that strategy appears to have produced dividends: The latest PISA results show that for the first time Germany exceeded the OECD average in all disciplines (math, reading and science). Education Minister Johanna Wanka effectively declared victory, calling for the end of the "PISA shock."
And yet the trend is not as positive as the headline numbers suggest. Fifteen-year-old Germans saw their math scores barely budge in raw terms. Meanwhile, 20 percent of students read below grade level -- a result unchanged from a decade ago. In key respects, Germany is far from being a model when it comes to quality education.
Above all, the country is still fighting against a declining level of performance. The new PISA results reveal a deficit in fostering the education of particularly gifted students. The proportion of low-achieving students has fallen over the past years, but the proportion of high-achieving students has stagnated.
"We have not yet been able to put into effect an educational system which incorporates both the weaker and the stronger students," Dräger said. "Support is not just seeing that someone achieves the minimum."
Meanwhile, German girls are lagging behind boys in math yet outpacing them in reading. In the first PISA study 13 years ago, girls scored an average of 9 points below their male peers. The gap has now widened to 14 points.
An additional factor in Germany’s mediocre performance is arguably teacher training at German universities. Each German state has its own standards for education degrees, and the experience and aptitude among teachers varies greatly.
"Education plays only a minor role in teacher trainings," said Norbert Seibert, a professor at the University of Passau.
Improving the quality of teaching may be a crucial means of elevating student achievement.
POLAND: Affirmation of Reforms
When Poland's former vice minister of education, Maciej Jakubowski, learned about his country's high-flying results on the latest round of international student achievement tests, he was relieved.
A decade earlier, the PISA tests had found that Poland’s students sat roughly equal to their counterparts in Hungary and Slovakia in terms of math achievement. Now, they ranked alongside Finland, Canada and Belgium. In terms of their overall achievement across multiple subjects, Poland's students had jumped ahead of those in the United States.
The numbers seemed to transcend decades of offensive stereotypes about the intelligence of Polish people and the fitness of the country’s economic reforms.
"The increase is very impressive," said PISA coordinator Andreas Schleicher.
Over the last decade, Poland reduced its proportion of low-level math performers from 22 percent to 14 percent and increased its share of top-performing math students from 10 percent to 17 percent. The rise in math scores was distributed evenly across the socioeconomic spectrum, meaning that rich and poor students increased their scores at the same rate.
For Poland’s educational reformists, the new scores reinforced their arguments that continued progress depends upon pressing ahead with politically controversial changes.
Just one month earlier, non-government petitioners forced the parliament to hold a referendum vote to repeal divisive school reforms that Jakubowski and others have cited as the cause of the country's rapid improvement: a major change in how school is structured, and the establishment of a core curriculum that emphasizes skills and thinking over rote memorization.
Reformists quickly seized on the PISA numbers as proof that their approach was working.
"We were surprised," said Jakubowski, who recently left the government. "We were not expecting the newest reforms to have such an immediate effect, but it seems that teachers reacted very quickly and students started learning differently immediately."
For decades, Poland's school system had revolved around sorting students early in life: The most promising students were marked for traditional education while the lower-achievers were placed on a vocational path.
That system was altered in 1999, as Polish officials delayed the splitting of students between educational and vocational tracks by one year. As part of that shift, Poland created middle schools, known as "Gimnazjum," or gymnasium. Building these new schools meant that students stayed together and learned the same things for an additional year. According to OECD, that gave disadvantaged students a better chance of getting into secondary school and, eventually, university: Between 1989 and 2011, participation in higher education quadrupled from 10 percent to 41.2 percent.
Around the same time, Poland developed a new national core curriculum and deregulated the textbook market, allowing teachers to choose their own textbooks. To track that liberalized teaching system, Poland instituted new standardized tests at the end of each phase of schooling.
"The external exams encouraged teachers and students alike to adapt their teaching and learning styles to the new reality," said Justyna Matejczyk, principal of the Nicolaus Copernicus Bilingual School in Warsaw. "The teachers who were employed at junior high schools often faced a completely new age group with its own specific behavioral and cognitive problems."
In 2009, the curriculum was again updated to emphasize critical-thinking skills over facts and straight memorization. The government organized the curriculum around standards that students were supposed to learn by a certain age. Beyond that framework, teachers and schools were free to develop their own curricula in the hopes of creating more customized instruction.
The reforms were costly -- between 1999 and 2009, Poland increased its education expenditures by 104 percent. Over time, schools became more autonomous: Local governments made budgeting decisions and principals could set teacher pay. On average, teachers' salaries doubled, as did the percentage of teachers with university degrees.
"We cannot say for sure whether it's those reforms that led to the kind of improvement that you have seen," Schleicher said, while calling them "a kind of plausible explanation."
Almost 15 years after they were introduced, Poland's reforms are still polarizing. "It's very difficult to change something that was there for many, many years," Jakubowski said. The government's biggest mistake, he said, was implementing both sets of reforms too quickly, and without "convincing people that reform is needed. We are now paying the cost of this."
Most of the recent pushback, Matejczyk said, stems from the traditionalists as well as questions around having 6-year-olds in primary schools. While she thinks the reforms did more good than harm, she says Poland still struggles with large class sizes and could benefit from "more emphasis on promoting ethically informed attitudes."
"PISA is showing that we have very good teachers and very good schools," Jakubowski said. "It was a highly political issue, but fortunately the new results supported our view and convinced many people that lower secondary schools are very effective. The vote didn't pass."
SPAIN: An Educational Abyss
In Spain, the latest student achievement results were received as evidence of a wound that is bleeding dry the Spanish educational system.
Recent years of economic catastrophe have seen sharp cuts to public education as the government grapples with deficits, and as reformists press for greater accountability of teachers. The PISA data seemed to confirm that students have yet to improve.
In mathematics, Spanish students secured 25th place out of the 34 industrialized countries of the OECD, and came in significantly below average in reading and science. All of this continued a trend that has been seen for years, provoking a generalized sense of grief and astonishment on editorial pages, where pundits competed with one another to outdo their criticisms of the Spanish educational system.
The data brought home an especially worrisome truth of widening inequality -- between the northern regions and the southern regions; between the richest and the poorest.
"The unresolved matter is a change of the educational model," said the secretary of state for education, Montserrat Gomendio. He aims to provide educational centers with more autonomy while implementing a national standard testing regimen.
An analyst on the PISA team, Pablo Zoido, pointed to the results as proof that Spain "must continue reforming" if it doesn’t want to remain one of the tail-end countries of the OECD. A reform to ensure that professors improve, he contends, would lead to Spanish universities being more attractive to students "of higher quality."
The Spanish Confederation of Associations of Fathers and Mothers of Students, a movement that has opposed budget cuts in Spain, portrayed the results very differently, pointing to the PISA data as the bad fruit of austerity.
"Maintaining the same investment from years ago would have produced better results," said the group’s president, Jesús María Sánchez, adding that cuts in funding have delivered "the increase in inequality."
FRANCE: Three Decades of Inequality
If the PISA numbers tell a tale, French students are slipping. The data show that France dropped two places to 25th out of the 65 participating countries.
Perhaps more uncomfortable for the French was the finding that inequality has widened. While the number of high-achieving students remained stable, the number of pupils who are struggling increased.
"The correlation between socioeconomic background and performance is much more pronounced than in most OECD countries," the PISA report said. "When you come from a disadvantaged background, you clearly have fewer chances of succeeding than in 2003."
Yet for the incoming minister of education, Vincent Peillon, a Socialist, these poor results may be a blessing: They add pressure for the major education reforms he outlined last April in the name of reducing inequality.
Not least, Peillon aims to increase the number of young children entering school -- a factor the PISA data finds correlates to later achievement. The number of 3-year-olds going to school in France actually fell from 30 percent to 12 percent between 2000 and 2012, a trend Peilon now aims to reverse.
Another issue the government is tackling is a tendency to have students repeat grades, which exACerbates inequality while inflating the public tab for education. Peillon said he now intends to reduce grade repetition by half.
In a sense, Peillon is merely continuing a fight against inequality that has been the cornerstone of French education policy since the election of Socialist President François Mitterrand in 1981. His government created so-called Priority Education Zones that receive an outsized share of public support. More than three decades later, the results are definitively mixed, with high turnover at the schools inside the zones and achievement still divided.
The latest PISA data both confirms that reality while perhaps reinforcing the political dynamic required to continue the campaign to close the gap.
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