Clayton Students Post World-Class Performance on International Assessment
First in the world in science and reading; Second in the world in math
The School District of Clayton is proud to announce the impressive results for Clayton students on a highly-respected international assessment of student achievement that benchmarks young people’s readiness to tackle real-world challenges. The District participated in the 2009 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) to compare the District’s students at an international level and see how they match up against the highest performing countries in the world.
The assessment was given to all Clayton High School sophomores. The results indicate that the District not only measures up with some of the highest-performing countries in the world, but that Clayton students often outperform them. The 2009 PISA results indicate that CHS students comparatively finished:
In order to participate in the assessment, Clayton formed the equivalent of its own country. However, unlike other U.S. schools that just tested a small sample of their students, Clayton tested all sophomores. While the PISA only charts results for 15-year old students in order to enhance the validity of comparing scores across nations, Clayton Superintendent Dr. Mary Herrmann explained that the results mean so much more.
“The results are a tribute to our School District of Clayton staff at every level – PreK through 12,” said Herrmann, “for their dedication to advancing our students to such a high level of global performance.”
Herrmann noted while there are other U.S. schools districts that would likely perform similarly to Clayton on the PISA, very few of them are actually measuring themselves on a global level. “Our District’s commitment to continual growth is exemplified by our courage to put ourselves out there to confront and to learn from our data. As a learning community, we pride ourselves on setting high expectations, looking outside and benchmarking against the best in the world.”
The Clayton community has long held that its school district “provides a world-class education.” Historically, more than four out of five respondents have agreed with that statement on public opinion surveys over the years. Now, the District has the data to support that opinion.
“Clayton residents have prided themselves in a District that offers their children a world-class education,” explained Board of Education President Sonny Buttar. “Even though the PISA results are only a snapshot in time, they reflect generations of community support, decades of outstanding teachers and administrators and year after year of Boards of Education who have continually looked to define ‘excellence’ in education. These results affirm who we are.”
The Missouri Commissioner of Education Chris L. Nicastro has extended a congratulations to Clayton. Read it here.
International Benchmarking Presentation On Tuesday, Jan. 11, at 7 p.m. in the Clayton High School Auditorium, there will be a presentation about the PISA results, placed in the context of international benchmarking, world-class education and the Common Core State Standards. The presentation will be lead by Dr. Andrew Chen, a leading authority on the topics, a member of the Common Core State Standards Initiative and a member of the Mathematics and Science Advisory Council for the Massachusetts Board of Education. Learn more.
About the PISA (www.pisa.oecd.org) The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) is an international standardized assessment that focuses on young people’s ability to use their knowledge and skills to meet real-life challenges. It evaluates the quality, equity and efficiency of school systems in some 70 countries that, together, make up nine-tenths of the world economy. It is a project of the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD), a unique forum where governments work together to address the economic, social and environmental challenges of globalization. Begun in 2000, PISA is administered every three years. In 2009, PISA tested 15-year-olds in reading, mathematics and science in 34 OECD member countries and 41 partner countries and economies. The assessment considers students’ knowledge in these areas not in isolation, but in relation to their ability to reflect on their knowledge and experience and apply them to real-world issues. The emphasis is on mastering processes, understanding concepts and functioning in various contexts within each assessment area.
Download the OECD's Executive Summary of the PISA 2009 Results
