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Ten
Variables Affecting Education Quality
It has been posited that the impact that ten key variables
have had on the qualify of education around the world and in the
US is proportioned as follows:
 | -10%--Students per classroom. |
| -15%--Cost of education. |
| 0%--TV viewing. |
| 10%--Dress regulations. |
| 10%--Single sex classrooms. |
| 15%--Personal Savings Rates. |
| 15%--Crime rates. |
| 20%--Family stability. |
| 25%--Sex of the teacher. |
| 30%--Prayer in school. |
Please advise asap
if you believe there are any additional significant variables
which should be added to this list.
The TIMSS Executive Summary at http://nces.ed.gov/TIMSS/97198-2.html
provides excellent guidance in our search for the root problem.
It infers that teachers' lives, teaching methodology, ability
grouping, out-of-school math and science study, and TV viewing
are of little to no significance to education quality. It infers
that content of U.S. eighth-grade mathematics classes, US
teachers' familiarity with reform recommendations, and practical
training and daily support of US teachers may be directly
associated to the problem.
Chapter 7 at http://nces.ed.gov/TIMSS/97198-7.html
infers that diversity, drug use, school violence, shortages of
demonstration and instructional equipment, a wide range of
academic abilities of students, language spoken by students, and
on-the-job training teachers receive are of little to no
significance to education quality. It infers that informal
opportunities for teachers to learn from each other, discipline,
theft may be directly associated to the problem. It infers that
higher degrees earned by teachers and the number of female
teachers may be inversely associated to the problem (i.e., the
more MS degrees held by teachers and/or the more female teachers,
the lower the TIMSS test scores):
The typical teacher of U.S.
eighth-grade math and science students was a woman in her
forties, with about 15 years of prior teaching experience.
Forties was the norm for most of the other TIMSS countries. The
typical teacher of German students was a man nearly fifty, who
had been teaching for about 19 years; and the typical teacher of
Japanese students was a man in his late thirties, who had been
teaching for 14 years.
| Students per Classroom Contrary to
popular belief, both the US
data and the international
data show an inverse relationship between the number
of students per classroom and math skills--the more
students per classroom, the higher the TIMSS and SAT
scores. This is not to say that the solution is as simple
as doubling the number of students in American class
rooms. It only suggests that it is possible and maybe
even desirable to do so, but that, concurrently, other
factors need to be examined even more closely.
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| Cost of Education As with the number
of students per classroom, both the national and international data defies the
popular belief that increasing spending for education
will improve education quality. The data shows that
exactly the opposite is the case--the lower the cost of
education the higher the TIMSS and SAT scores, or
conversely the higher the math skills of students the
less it costs to educate them.
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| TV Viewing The fact that two countries
which score significantly higher on TIMSS than the US
(Japan and Germany) also report a high rate of TV viewing
suggests that this is not as significant a factor as is
commonly believed.
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| Dress Regulations The combination of
TV advertising and dress fashions in the US, the
distraction that dress fashions and make up have in US
classrooms, and the absence of this problem in countries
which have both significantly higher TIMSS scores and
school uniforms (Japan, Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong
Kong) all suggest that this is a factor which should have
been included in the TIMSS.
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| Single Sex Classrooms There is
abundant evidence in the US, as well
as internationally, that both boys and girls benefit
significantly from class rooms which exclude distractions
from the opposite sex, suggesting that this is a factor
which should have been included in the TIMSS.
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| Personal Savings Rates The highest correlation is seen
between TIMSS scores and savings rates of nations,
presumably reflecting that better math skills of a
nation's students encourage and/or enable higher rates of
saving. The fact that the US Personal Savings rate has gone
negative for the first time in our nation's history
at the same time that countries like Japan have little
public debt and an average 34% gross savings rate would
probably be of more concern to to American's with math
skills which were 98 SAT points higher.
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| Crime Rates The relationship between
rising crime, violence, divorce, incarceration rates and
increasing family breakdown is well documented. The role
the education system plays in this is evident but not as
well documented.
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| Family Stability The TIMSS report's
biggest failing is its omission of this obvious and
extremely important factor in the education of our
nation's children. This might be explained by the fact
that 800,000 Signatories to the Fathers' Manifesto have
asserted that the US education system has seriously
adversely impacted family stability itself. Even though
it would be impossible to significantly improve the US
education system without first correcting that, the
process cannot even begin until our nation's children
learn in this nation's schools the importance to society
of the stability of the family unit.
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| Sex of the Teacher Numerous data
points suggest that there is a direct correlation between
the percent of teachers who are males and TIMSS scores.
In the G-7
Countries TIMSS scores increase 2 points for each 1%
increase in the percent of teachers who are males. In the
European
Countries TIMSS scores increase 2 points for each 1%
increase in the percent of teachers who are males. In all of the
countries who participated in TIMSS scores increase 4
points for each 1% increase in the percent of teachers
who are males. The correlation is closer when the percent
of *math* teachers
who are males are compared to TIMSS scores. Since 1960 in
the US, SAT scores
decreased 16 points for each 1% decrease in the
percent of US teachers who are males. This factor should
have been stressed much more in TIMSS.
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| Prayer in School Prayer in
school was banned in 1961, SAT scores began a persistent
decline, and are now 98 points lower than they were when
prayer in school was legal and widely practiced. Many of
those countries with 100+ higher TIMSS scores pray in
school 2-3 times per day.
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