Nobody reads.

Somehow I got redirected to a random education blog this morning, which highlighted the PISA (an international test designed to give some idea of comparative performance). The blog highlights reading scores by free and reduced lunch levels and shows how the USA actually does quite well when wealthier schools are considered. However, in trying to track down the data, I clicked on one link, and then another, and then another.

As I clicked, the blogs became slightly more politicized and critical. The one that spurned this post writes:

"There is, however, someone who recognizes that the data is being misinterpreted. NEAToday published remarks from National Association of Secondary School Principals Executive Director, Dr. Gerald N. Tirozzi, that have taken "a closer look at how the U.S. reading scores on PISA compared with the rest of the world’s, overlaying it with the statistics on how many of the tested students are in the government’s free and reduced lunch program for students below the poverty line." Tirozzi pointed out, “Once again, we’re reminded that students in poverty require intensive supports to break past a condition that formal schooling alone cannot overcome.” Tirozzi demonstrates the correlation between socio-economic status and reading by presenting the PISA scores in terms of individual American schools and poverty. While the overall PISA rankings ignore such differences in the tested schools, when groupings based on the rate of free and reduced lunch are created, a direct relationship is established."

So I thought, huh, I should download the full data set and do it myself to see if I could. But I couldn't-- I couldn't find the free and reduced lunch variable in the PISA dataset.

But you know what I could find-- the exact table and statistics on reading levels and poverty in the appendix to the report (table r4, page 16). It's right there-- it wasn't Tirozzi who performed this amazing analysis. The NCES just did it themselves-- but nobody reads the full report. Ever. And then education bloggers all over go crazy-- "Look at what they left out! Thank God we are so much smarter than that government! We are so smart and critical."