Mathematics Assessment Comparison: Massachusetts and Hong Kong
From APEC HRDWG Wiki
A study titled, Measuring Up: How the Highest Performing State (Massachusetts) Compares to the Highest Performing Country (Hong Kong) In Grade 3 Mathematics, compares Hong Kong’s Grade 3 assessment with the Grade 3 assessment administered in Massachusetts. The Hong Kong assessment, a basic competency assessment, covers the knowledge and skills that should be acquired by students set out in the [mathematics] curriculum for each key stage. The Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) measures performance based on the Massachusetts Curriculum learning standards. Additionally, the MCAS is a high-stakes assessment and Hong Kong’s assessment is a low-stakes assessment. As a result, the MCAS may include a greater percentage of less-demanding items allow students with low mathematics ability to pass the test. The actual assessment items are available in the APEC mathematics assessments database. [1]
Such a comparison is important as Hong Kong ranked highest among all countries and Massachusetts (participated as a country) ranked fourth on the Grade 4 mathematics component of the 2007 Trends in Mathematics and Science, an international assessment. The study sought to understand why Hong Kong students outperform Massachusetts students, findings may improve the standards of mathematics education.
Contents |
Key Findings
After comparing the two assessments, the study found that items on Hong Kong's assessment differed from those items on the Massachusetts assessment in the following ways:
1. Hong Kong items were more concentrated in the number and measurement strands, compared with Massachusetts items.
2. Hong Kong items were more likely to require students to construct a response than Massachusetts items.
3. Hong Kong items were more likely to require more than low computational difficulty, compared with Massachusetts items.
4. Hong Kong items were more likely to fall into the moderate or high cognitive complexity category compared with Massachusetts items.
Assessment Component Classification
The items on mathematics assesments from Hong Kong and Massachusetts were classified in the following ways:
- strand
- type
- computational difficulty
- cognitive complexity
Examples
The following is an example of Hong Kong's assessment items. These items are a demanding assessment of students' deep mathematical understanding of concepts.
Order of Computational Problem:
340 – 500 + 460 = __________
This computation involves a difficult negative number problem if students carry out the subtraction sequentially (i.e., 340 – 500). However, if students understand instead to add out of sequence, 340 + 460, the resulting 800 produces an easy mental subtraction of 500 to yield an answer of 300.
Conclusion
Grade 3 mathematics standards in both Hong Kong and Massachusetts are similar overall. However, this international benchmarking comparison of mathematics assessments shows that there is greater depth of mathematical understanding required to solve many items on the Hong Kong assessment. This expectation of deep understanding of mathematics concepts is a likely contributor to Hong Kong’s achievement as the highest performer on TIMSS in the early grades.
References
- ↑ Leinwand, Steven, and Alan Ginsburg. "Measuring Up: How the Highest Performing State (Massachusetts) Compares to the Highest Performing Country (Hong Kong) In Grade 3 Mathematics." American Institutes for Research (April 2009).
