Teenagers’ mathematics and reading skills are in an unprecedented decline across dozens of countries and COVID school closures are only partly to be blamed, the OECD said on Tuesday in its latest survey of global learning standards.

  • doublejay1999@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    1 out of 4 were low performers in maths, reading and science

    So the bottom 25% were all in the bottom 25%?

    • Fandangalo@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Let’s say “low performing” means you scored 20% or lower on the test. We’d write that as “25% scored 20% or lower.” But you could move the measure of “low” to whatever.

      It’s not “the bottom 25% were in the bottom 25%.” It’s “25% met the criteria for low.” Those are different things.

      …unless this is a /s that I’m too tired or socially inept to process. i’m trying to be helpful.

    • Dicska@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Kind of, but if you take a bunch of maths PhD students, the bottom 25% will still get decent scores. I guess this just meant the bottom 25% was performing poorly not just compared to the top 75%, but also compared to a fixed limit.

    • hansl@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      This guy not understanding “decline” does a better job at explaining this article.