For those who thought A Nation at Risk could be dismissed as mere inflammatory rhetoric, a new report gives us the facts without the emotional tone. There's no doubt that our nation is at risk, according to a devastating study issued last week. The study, A World of Differences, compares the math and science performances of 13-year-old students from the U.S. and 11 other countries and Canadian provinces. The U.S. comes out rock bottom, not even close to the top group.
Both the math and science tests were designed to determine what percentage of the 13-year-olds could do problems at different levels of difficulty - indicating different levels of understanding and achievement. In math, the easiest and lowest level was the ability to add and subtract. All students did well at this, with 97% of U.S. students able to add and subtract, and all other scoring 98, 99 or 100%.
At the next level, the story was different. When students had to solve a simple, one-step problem by figuring out whether they should add, subtract, multiply or divide, over 90% of the students in eight of the 12 countries succeeded. But in the U.S., only 78% of the students could handle this task- the lowest percentage of any country or province.
The next test measured the ability of students to solve two-step problems where both addition and division are needed - like finding the average age of a group of students. Only 40% of U.S. students could solve these problems, while 78% of Koreans could. In five of the 12 countries, 65% of the students or more succeeded.
The gap gets wider as we test for "understanding concepts" - solving more complex problems and understanding measurements and some geometry concepts. Forty percent of the Koreans and 16-24% of students in six other countries were able to do these problems. But only 9% of American students and 7% of those in French Ontario were able to perform at this level.
At the highest and most difficult level - interpreting data from complex charts and applying mathematics learned in school to real-world problems -- 5% of the Korean students but only 1% ofU.S. and most other nations' 13-year-olds succeeded.
The science results were similar. In all countries, between 96-100% of the students knew simple, everyday facts. But at the next level - applying simple scientific principles - seven of the 12 countries scored between 90-95%, while the U.S. and Ireland were lowest with 78% and 76%, respectively.
Even larger differences emerged at the next level - the ability to analyze experiments. Korea came in at 73% and British Columbia at 72%, while the U.S. had only 42%; Ireland, 37%; French Ontario, 35%; and French New Brunswick, 35%.
At the highest level tested - applying scientific principles - over 31 % of British Columbian students and 33% of the Koreans showed proficiency, while in the U.S. only 12% did, with three countries below us.
Ironically, when the tested students were asked whether they thought they were good at math, only 23% of the Koreans --the highest achievers - said yes (perhaps due to cultural modesty). But 68% of U.S. students - the lowest achievers - answered yes! (We scored highest on immodesty.)
What are we to make of this? Marshal Smith, Dean of the School of Education at Stanford University, in a recent conversation about sciences, said that the battle is lost in grades K-8. Very few U.S. students enter high school prepared to do high-school level science. Teachers in many elementary school teach almost no science because they themselves have never taken a serious science course, have no one to turn to for help, have very little equipment or lab facilities, among other problems.
What is true of science is largely true of math. In many states, there are no math or science requirements for licensing elementary school teachers. Where they do exist, the requirements are satisfied by demonstrating skill at the lowest level - simple computation and knowledge of basic scientific facts. As students go on to secondary schools, they're most likely to be taught by math and science teachers who are not really math and science teachers; they're teachers of other subjects forced to teach math and science, which they're not prepared to do.
Testing is also implicated in the mess we're in. Most school systems put no emphasis on science because they spend most of their time on the skills measured by the standardized tests that determine their system's reputation. That means lots of time on basic reading and low-level math.
Some other interesting facts emerge from the study. With the exception of the U.S., all the other places have either a provincial or a national curriculum. Korea, which did the best, has a much longer school year - 220 days. But British Columbia, which also scored very well, does not have a long school year 185 days.
Of great interests is the fact that Korea is the only place that does not rely on classroom lectures and textbooks alone. Starting there in the 1970s, "The main thrust has been to develop an instructional system that draws not only on classroom lectures and the reading of textbooks but also on multiple learning materials and an extensive and very sophisticated set of television and radio programs."
Given the importance of math and science for business and industry, for national defense and for the intelligent exercise of citizenship, the U.S. faces disastrous consequences if these results are not turned around. It will be very difficult to do because we aren't producing enough college graduates who know enough math and science to meet the needs of business, the military and the schools. This is one problem that no "Education President" can refuse to ignore.
The study was conducted by the Educational Testing Service, Princeton, N.J., using the techniques developed by the National Assessment of Educational Progress. The countries and provinces were: U.S., Korea, French Quebec, English Quebec, British Columbia, English New Brunswick, French New Brunswick, English Ontario, French Ontario, Spain, the United Kingdom and Ireland.