EDUCATION INDICATORS: An International Perspective

Indicator 9: Geography Achievement

Basic literacy in geography provides individuals with an understanding of the geographical context in which all political, environmental, and social events take place. This indicator measures basic geographic skills and knowledge in three areas: geographic skills and tools (e.g., use of maps, charts, globes); physical geography (e.g., locations of physical and topographical features); and cultural geography (e.g., interactions between people and their environment). The assessment reported here provides a rough indication of competencies among 13-year-olds in a limited number of primarily European and North American countries.

Students in the United States performed in the mid-range of countries participating in a 1991 assessment of geographic knowledge and skills. Student performance ranged from 70 percent correct in Hungary to about 58 percent correct in Scotland and Ireland.
In all countries,* including the United States, male students outperformed their female counterparts, with differences in Korea ranging up to 7 percentage points.
In the United States, as in the other participating countries, students scored highest on questions involving map- or chart-reading skills (i.e., skills component). They did less well in identifying physical, topographical, and climatic features (i.e., physical component), and on cultural geography items that required a knowledge of countries, regions, and language groups and an understanding of the interactions between people and their environment.

*The differences were not significant in the former Soviet Union.

Table 9: Average percent correct1 for 13-year-olds on geography items, by sex, content area, and country: 1991 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

			Total							Content areas
		  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Country		        Total	     Male	   Female	   Skills	  Physical	  Cultural
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
G-72
Canada			63.0 	(0.5)	65.5	(0.6)	60.5	(0.5)	69.5	(0.4)	61.0	(0.6)	58.2	(0.6)
United States		61.9	(0.8)	64.6	(0.8)	59.4	(1.0)	69.4 	(0.6)	58.3	(1.0)	58.1	(1.0)
Other
Hungary			69.8	(0.6)	72.7	(0.7)	67.0	(0.7)	76.3	(0.5)	67.8	(0.7)	65.0	(0.7)
Ireland			58.5	(0.6)	61.4	(0.9)	55.7	(0.7)	62.7	(0.6)	59.5	(0.8)	52.3	(0.8)
Korea			59.7	(0.5)	63.0	(0.7)	55.7	(0.8)	67.8	(0.5)	52.1	(0.7)	60.3	(0.6)
Scotland		58.3	(0.6)	61.0	(0.6)	55.6	(0.8)	66.2	(0.5)	57.1	(0.8)	50.6	(0.8)
Slovenia		65.3	(0.6)	67.8	(0.6)	62.6	(0.8)	67.9	(0.5)	63.6	(0.7)	64.3	(0.9)
Soviet Union (former)	62.6	(1.1)	64.1	(1.1)	61.1	(1.2)	72.2	(0.9)	61.2	(1.0)	53.4	(1.8)
Spain			60.1	(0.7)	63.0	(0.8)	57.3	(0.9)	62.4	(0.9)	58.9	(0.7)	58.9	(1.1)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1/ Standard errors are in parentheses.
2/ No data available for France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United Kingdom.

NOTE: There were three categories of geography items: geographic skills and tools included the use of maps, charts, and globes; physical geography included the location of physical and topographical features and concepts of climate; and cultural geography included the location of cultural entitles (regions, countries, large groups) and interactions between people and their environment. See supplemental note to Indicator 9 for details on population exclusions.

SOURCE: Educational Testing Service, International Assessment of Educational Progress, Learning About the World, 1992.

Figure 9a: Average percent correct for 13-year-olds on geography items, by sex and country:* 1991

*Countries are sorted in descending order by average percent correct for the total sample.

SOURCE: Educational Testing Service, the International Assessment of Educational progress, Learning About the World, 1992.

Figure 9b: Average percent correct for 13-year-olds on geography items, by content area and country:* 1991

*Countries are sorted in descending order by percent correct on the skills subsection.

SOURCE: Educational Testing Service, The International Assessment of Educational Progress, Learning About the World, 1992.

See Supplemental Notes on Figure and Tables

[Indicator 8] Previous

[Indicator 10]