India Shining and Bharat Drowning : Comparing Two Indian States to the Worldwide Distribution in Mathematics Achievement

This paper uses student answers to publicly released questions from an international testing agency together with statistical methods from Item Response Theory to place secondary students from two Indian states -Orissa and Rajasthan -on a worldwide...

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Main Authors: Das, Jishnu, Zajonc, Tristan
Format: Policy Research Working Paper
Language:English
Published: World Bank, Washington, DC 2012
Subjects:
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2008/06/9560562/india-shining-bharat-drowning-comparing-two-indian-states-worldwide-distribution-mathematics-achievement
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/6668
id okr-10986-6668
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-66682021-04-23T14:02:32Z India Shining and Bharat Drowning : Comparing Two Indian States to the Worldwide Distribution in Mathematics Achievement Das, Jishnu Zajonc, Tristan ACHIEVEMENT ACHIEVEMENTS APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY ATTENTION AVERAGE SCORE BELIEFS CALL COGNITIVE ABILITY COMPETENCE ECONOMICS OF EDUCATION EDUCATED WORKERS EDUCATION BUDGET EDUCATION SECTOR EDUCATION SYSTEM EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT EDUCATIONAL MEASUREMENT EDUCATIONAL PLANNING EDUCATIONAL POLICY EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM EDUCATIONAL TESTING ENROLLMENT RATE ENROLLMENT RATES EXAM EXAMS FIRST GRADE FUTURE RESEARCH GENDER GIRLS GROSS ENROLLMENT HUMAN DEVELOPMENT HUMAN SCIENCES INFERENCE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY INTERVENTIONS INTUITION LEARNING LEARNING ACHIEVEMENT LEARNING ACHIEVEMENTS LEARNING LEVELS LEARNING OUTCOMES LEVELS OF ENROLLMENT LITERACY LITERATURE LOWER SECONDARY LOWER SECONDARY SCHOOLS MATH SCORES MATHEMATICS MOBILITY MOTIVATION NET ENROLLMENT NUMERACY ONLY CHILDREN PAPERS PRIMARY EDUCATION PRIMARY ENROLLMENT PRIMARY GRADES PRIMARY SCHOOL PRIMARY SCHOOL CHILDREN PRIMARY SCHOOLING PRINCIPALS PRIVATE SCHOOL PRIVATE SCHOOLS PROFICIENCY QUALITY EDUCATION QUALITY OF EDUCATION REASONING RESEARCH INSTITUTE RESEARCHERS RURAL AREAS SCHOOL ATTENDANCE SCHOOL SURVEY SCHOOLS SECONDARY EDUCATION SECONDARY SCHOOL SECONDARY SCHOOL ENROLLMENTS SECONDARY SCHOOLING SECONDARY SCHOOLS SECONDARY STUDENTS SENIOR SECONDARY SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS SKILLED WORKERS SOCIAL STUDIES STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT TEACHERS TEST SCORES THINKING YOUTH This paper uses student answers to publicly released questions from an international testing agency together with statistical methods from Item Response Theory to place secondary students from two Indian states -Orissa and Rajasthan -on a worldwide distribution of mathematics achievement. These two states fall below 43 of the 51 countries for which data exist. The bottom 5 percent of children rank higher than the bottom 5 percent in only three countries-South Africa, Ghana and Saudi Arabia. But not all students test poorly. Inequality in the test-score distribution for both states is next only to South Africa in the worldwide ranking exercise. Consequently, and to the extent that these two states can represent India, the two statements "for every ten top performers in the United States there are four in India" and "for every ten low performers in the United States there are two hundred in India" are both consistent with the data. The combination of India's size and large variance in achievement give both the perceptions that India is shining even as Bharat, the vernacular for India, is drowning. Comparable estimates of inequalities in learning are the building blocks for substantive research on the correlates of earnings inequality in India and other low-income countries; the methods proposed here allow for independent testing exercises to build up such data by linking scores to internationally comparable tests. 2012-05-30T17:59:45Z 2012-05-30T17:59:45Z 2008-06 http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2008/06/9560562/india-shining-bharat-drowning-comparing-two-indian-states-worldwide-distribution-mathematics-achievement http://hdl.handle.net/10986/6668 English Policy Research Working Paper No. 4644 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo/ World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper Publications & Research South Asia India
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
topic ACHIEVEMENT
ACHIEVEMENTS
APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
ATTENTION
AVERAGE SCORE
BELIEFS
CALL
COGNITIVE ABILITY
COMPETENCE
ECONOMICS OF EDUCATION
EDUCATED WORKERS
EDUCATION BUDGET
EDUCATION SECTOR
EDUCATION SYSTEM
EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION
EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT
EDUCATIONAL MEASUREMENT
EDUCATIONAL PLANNING
EDUCATIONAL POLICY
EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH
EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM
EDUCATIONAL TESTING
ENROLLMENT RATE
ENROLLMENT RATES
EXAM
EXAMS
FIRST GRADE
FUTURE RESEARCH
GENDER
GIRLS
GROSS ENROLLMENT
HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
HUMAN SCIENCES
INFERENCE
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
INTERVENTIONS
INTUITION
LEARNING
LEARNING ACHIEVEMENT
LEARNING ACHIEVEMENTS
LEARNING LEVELS
LEARNING OUTCOMES
LEVELS OF ENROLLMENT
LITERACY
LITERATURE
LOWER SECONDARY
LOWER SECONDARY SCHOOLS
MATH SCORES
MATHEMATICS
MOBILITY
MOTIVATION
NET ENROLLMENT
NUMERACY
ONLY CHILDREN
PAPERS
PRIMARY EDUCATION
PRIMARY ENROLLMENT
PRIMARY GRADES
PRIMARY SCHOOL
PRIMARY SCHOOL CHILDREN
PRIMARY SCHOOLING
PRINCIPALS
PRIVATE SCHOOL
PRIVATE SCHOOLS
PROFICIENCY
QUALITY EDUCATION
QUALITY OF EDUCATION
REASONING
RESEARCH INSTITUTE
RESEARCHERS
RURAL AREAS
SCHOOL ATTENDANCE
SCHOOL SURVEY
SCHOOLS
SECONDARY EDUCATION
SECONDARY SCHOOL
SECONDARY SCHOOL ENROLLMENTS
SECONDARY SCHOOLING
SECONDARY SCHOOLS
SECONDARY STUDENTS
SENIOR SECONDARY
SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS
SKILLED WORKERS
SOCIAL STUDIES
STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT
TEACHERS
TEST SCORES
THINKING
YOUTH
spellingShingle ACHIEVEMENT
ACHIEVEMENTS
APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
ATTENTION
AVERAGE SCORE
BELIEFS
CALL
COGNITIVE ABILITY
COMPETENCE
ECONOMICS OF EDUCATION
EDUCATED WORKERS
EDUCATION BUDGET
EDUCATION SECTOR
EDUCATION SYSTEM
EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION
EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT
EDUCATIONAL MEASUREMENT
EDUCATIONAL PLANNING
EDUCATIONAL POLICY
EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH
EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM
EDUCATIONAL TESTING
ENROLLMENT RATE
ENROLLMENT RATES
EXAM
EXAMS
FIRST GRADE
FUTURE RESEARCH
GENDER
GIRLS
GROSS ENROLLMENT
HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
HUMAN SCIENCES
INFERENCE
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
INTERVENTIONS
INTUITION
LEARNING
LEARNING ACHIEVEMENT
LEARNING ACHIEVEMENTS
LEARNING LEVELS
LEARNING OUTCOMES
LEVELS OF ENROLLMENT
LITERACY
LITERATURE
LOWER SECONDARY
LOWER SECONDARY SCHOOLS
MATH SCORES
MATHEMATICS
MOBILITY
MOTIVATION
NET ENROLLMENT
NUMERACY
ONLY CHILDREN
PAPERS
PRIMARY EDUCATION
PRIMARY ENROLLMENT
PRIMARY GRADES
PRIMARY SCHOOL
PRIMARY SCHOOL CHILDREN
PRIMARY SCHOOLING
PRINCIPALS
PRIVATE SCHOOL
PRIVATE SCHOOLS
PROFICIENCY
QUALITY EDUCATION
QUALITY OF EDUCATION
REASONING
RESEARCH INSTITUTE
RESEARCHERS
RURAL AREAS
SCHOOL ATTENDANCE
SCHOOL SURVEY
SCHOOLS
SECONDARY EDUCATION
SECONDARY SCHOOL
SECONDARY SCHOOL ENROLLMENTS
SECONDARY SCHOOLING
SECONDARY SCHOOLS
SECONDARY STUDENTS
SENIOR SECONDARY
SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS
SKILLED WORKERS
SOCIAL STUDIES
STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT
TEACHERS
TEST SCORES
THINKING
YOUTH
Das, Jishnu
Zajonc, Tristan
India Shining and Bharat Drowning : Comparing Two Indian States to the Worldwide Distribution in Mathematics Achievement
geographic_facet South Asia
India
relation Policy Research Working Paper No. 4644
description This paper uses student answers to publicly released questions from an international testing agency together with statistical methods from Item Response Theory to place secondary students from two Indian states -Orissa and Rajasthan -on a worldwide distribution of mathematics achievement. These two states fall below 43 of the 51 countries for which data exist. The bottom 5 percent of children rank higher than the bottom 5 percent in only three countries-South Africa, Ghana and Saudi Arabia. But not all students test poorly. Inequality in the test-score distribution for both states is next only to South Africa in the worldwide ranking exercise. Consequently, and to the extent that these two states can represent India, the two statements "for every ten top performers in the United States there are four in India" and "for every ten low performers in the United States there are two hundred in India" are both consistent with the data. The combination of India's size and large variance in achievement give both the perceptions that India is shining even as Bharat, the vernacular for India, is drowning. Comparable estimates of inequalities in learning are the building blocks for substantive research on the correlates of earnings inequality in India and other low-income countries; the methods proposed here allow for independent testing exercises to build up such data by linking scores to internationally comparable tests.
format Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper
author Das, Jishnu
Zajonc, Tristan
author_facet Das, Jishnu
Zajonc, Tristan
author_sort Das, Jishnu
title India Shining and Bharat Drowning : Comparing Two Indian States to the Worldwide Distribution in Mathematics Achievement
title_short India Shining and Bharat Drowning : Comparing Two Indian States to the Worldwide Distribution in Mathematics Achievement
title_full India Shining and Bharat Drowning : Comparing Two Indian States to the Worldwide Distribution in Mathematics Achievement
title_fullStr India Shining and Bharat Drowning : Comparing Two Indian States to the Worldwide Distribution in Mathematics Achievement
title_full_unstemmed India Shining and Bharat Drowning : Comparing Two Indian States to the Worldwide Distribution in Mathematics Achievement
title_sort india shining and bharat drowning : comparing two indian states to the worldwide distribution in mathematics achievement
publisher World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate 2012
url http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2008/06/9560562/india-shining-bharat-drowning-comparing-two-indian-states-worldwide-distribution-mathematics-achievement
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/6668
_version_ 1764400887878385664