International Test Score Comparison Fail - Part II

Bob Somerby has been looking at the very dumb debate the press is having over the PISA scores, which compare American kids to the rest of the world on standardized tests.

Here's Bob's breakdown of the reading literacy scores, accounting for race:

Average score, reading literacy, PISA, 2009:
[United States, Asian students 541]
Korea 539
Finland 536
[United States, white students 525]
Canada 524
New Zealand 521
Japan 520
Australia 515
Netherlands 508
Belgium 506
Norway 503
Estonia 501
Switzerland 501
Poland 500
Iceland 500
United States (overall) 500
Sweden 497
Germany 497
Ireland 496
France 496
Denmark 495
United Kingdom 494
Hungary 494
OECD average 493
Portugal 489
Italy 486
Slovenia 483
Greece 483
Spain 481
Czech Republic 478
Slovak Republic 477
Israel 474
Luxembourg 472
Austria 470
[United States, Hispanic students 466]
Turkey 464
Chile 449
[United States, black students 441]
Mexico 425

I see this and I feel both vindicated as a teacher and incredibly saddened at the same time. When are we going to get serious about giving everyone in this country a chance to succeed? When are we going to stop pretending that charter schools and vouchers will have any effect on the massive income inequity and racial discrimination that has kept generation after generation of kids from realizing their potentials?

When are we going to stop letting charlatans like Michele Rhee guide our thinking about the future of these precious kids?

When are we going to grow up?