A few weeks ago, I, together with Eric Hanushek and Ludger Woessmann, issued a report showing that the United States ranked 31st in the world At bringing 15 year olds up to an advanced level of math achievement. Since the study caught the attention of the mainstream media (including the Atlantic, NBC's Nightly News, and the Boston Globe), it could hardly expect to escape scrutiny.
Still, I had not expected a critic to describe our work as "deceptive," the adjective chosen by University of Georgia's Jeremy Kilpatrick. We are further charged with "inaccurately exaggerat[ing] small differences" and engaging in other "misleading practice[s]." even though Kilpatrick writes under the auspices of a union-financed policy center, we were surprised by the tone of Kilpatrick's claims, As we had taken pains to make our Assumptions and methodology fully transparent, as is evident from the fact that our critic spends much of his time and energy iterating points we addressed in the report.
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(photo credit: jypsygen)
