Global Study Finds U.S. Students Weak in Math

The most ambitious international comparison of academic performance ever has found American middle schoolers trailing much of the world in mathematics, but holding their own in science.

Released Wednesday, the first results of the Third International Math and Science Study--which involved 45 countries and 500,000 students who took the tests in 30 languages--mean that the U.S. has little chance of meeting the goal established by President George Bush of topping the world in math and science achievement by the year 2000.

The top-performing country in math and science for both the seventh and eighth grades was Singapore, which is renowned both for its authoritarian government and its successful economy. Also excelling were South Korea, Japan and the Czech Republic.

The United States, meanwhile, came in below average in math, well behind such countries as Russia and Canada, but roughly on a par with economic competitors such as England and Germany. In science, U.S. students were above average, and scored similarly to their Canadian, English and German counterparts.

The study suggested that some outside factors, such as students’ access to books at home, played a significant role in their performance and that some teaching practices, such as the amount of homework assigned, did not. More important, a U.S. analysis concluded, was what students were taught--and how.

U.S. officials were somewhat heartened by the science results--which showed that students were particularly strong in their understanding of environmental issues--even as they were disappointed in the grades in math.

U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley said the results show that the country has far to go if it is to provide a “world-class education for all . . . children.”

Rather than bemoan the nation’s lackluster ranking in the international “horse race,” however, he used the findings as a platform to renew the Clinton administration’s push for a more demanding curriculum, challenging tests and teaching that goes beyond stressing memorization.

“Children always need to learn that 6 times 6 is 36 and to become good at long division, and that is not going to change,” Riley said. “But we also need to recognize that our children can learn much, much more. . . . What most of the world considers basics in the eighth grade, we consider advanced instruction.”

Raising standards for students will require fundamental improvements in how teachers are trained, he said.

International comparisons often are criticized for reducing to a single average the wide range of student performance within the localized American education system. But the new study--which was financed by governments around the world--found that even top U.S. students fall short.

America’s best math students would be in the middle of the pack in Singapore and would not even be in the top quarter in Japan, according to a U.S. analysis of the international results.

Not only do American students have difficulty with geometry and measurement, even simple arithmetic can stump them. For example, only 14% of American seventh-graders and 20% of eighth-graders could correctly calculate that raising the price of a can of beans from 60 cents to 75 cents equaled a 25% increase.

The weakness in math undermines performance in science as well, officials said, bringing down scores in heavily quantitative fields such as physics and chemistry. The top 5% of America’s science students are at about the same level as those in Japan, but are matched by a full quarter of those in Singapore.

The results released Wednesday compared the knowledge of 13-year-olds, most of whom are in grade 7 or 8 around the world. Nine-year-olds and 17-year-olds also were tested around the world, but the next results will not be released until June.

To help participating countries make sense of the test scores, researchers around the world collected information about curriculum, textbooks, teachers, students and their families. These findings reconfirmed what U.S. educators have long known--that academic achievement is strongly related to the educational background of parents and access to books, a computer and a desk.

But the findings also raised doubts about explanations often offered for poor student achievement--too much television-watching, large class sizes, not enough homework, too little money spent on education and not enough class time.

In fact, the U.S. is second only to Norway in how much it spends on public education per capita, its class sizes are smaller than those of many countries and U.S. students do more homework than--and watch just about as much television as--students in Japan.

Albert Shanker, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said the fact that higher-ranking countries do not embrace some reforms now popular here--such as voucher plans and longer school days--should debunk claims that they in themselves improve students’ performance.

“What we do need to worry about is how time in the classroom is used and the content of what is taught,” he said.

Albert Beaton, a Boston College professor who headed the international study, cautioned against reaching simple conclusions. “It would be nice to have a single variable that . . . had a clear relationship to performance, but we just haven’t found it,” he said.

For example, while leaders in U.S. math education suggest that children should use calculators starting in kindergarten, South Korean students almost never use them--but still ranked second in the world.

Beaton said the most startling finding was the nearly 300-point difference--on a 600-point scale--between the top- and and bottom-scoring countries in math, and a disparity almost that great in science.

The study found only small differences between boys and girls in math achievement, at least at this age. Boys, however, performed better than girls in science.

This is the fourth major study with worldwide scope since the 1960s, but twice as many countries participated as in any before. The earlier comparisons, which produced similar results, prompted reexaminations of teaching methods.

In September, the U.S. released a precursor report to the Third International Math and Science Study concluding that American students are barraged with a cacophony of topics in both math and science--far more than their peers in higher-performing countries--leaving them little chance to study any in depth. To remedy that, U.S. officials reiterated Wednesday, will require updated textbooks and teaching methods.

The new results show that the nation’s science instruction may be improving in comparison with the rest of the world. But although they show U.S. students’ math achievement rising as well, education officials said other countries had advanced more rapidly.

“We are not serving American kids as they need to be served . . . and we need a coordinated effort to do something about it,” said Linda Rosen, executive director of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.

The teachers group in 1989 issued a manifesto on math education that said students should be required to do more thinking and less memorizing, and explore more complex, real-world problems while practicing fewer routine ones.

More recently, that document, and others based on it--such as the California guidelines for math--have been criticized for stressing vague positive attitudes toward math rather than solid skills.

But Riley again endorsed the “reform” approach of the teachers group Wednesday. And a unique in-class video survey commissioned by the U.S. to complement the international research suggested that the approach has not yet been given a fair chance--in part because teachers are not adequately trained.

The video survey, headed by UCLA psychology professor James W. Stigler, randomly sampled classrooms in the U.S., Japan and Germany. Though virtually all American teachers say they practice techniques recommended by reformers, it said, their classroom instruction did not reflect it.

“You can’t say the math reforms are bad; what you can say is that no one has tried them in the way they were intended,” Stigler said. “Everybody is out there teaching the way . . . they were taught as kids and nobody is really learning very much.”

In comparison to lessons in Japan and Germany, those in the U.S. were found to be chaotic, more often interrupted by outside distractions and poorly designed. In fact, experts who watched the videotapes concluded that American lessons rarely, if ever, contain a high-quality sequence of mathematical ideas.

“The main message . . . is that we have to face the fact that we don’t have a good definition of quality instruction that’s grounded in actual examples,” Stigler said.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

How the U.S. Compares

A look at the top performers and the U.S.

*--*

Rank Math Score 1 Singapore 643 2 South Korea 607 3 Japan 605 4 Hong Kong 588 5 Belgium (Flemish) 565 28 U.S. 500

*--*

*--*

Rank Science Score 1 Singapore 607 2 Czech Republic 574 3 Japan 571 4 South Korea 565 5 Bulgaria 565 17 U.S. 534

*--*

****

After School

Percentage of eight- graders spending three or more hours in these activities on a normal school day:

Watching Televsion

U.S.: 38

Japan: 39

Germany: 22

*

Playing with friends

U.S.: 37

Japan: 26

Germany: 62

*

Playing sports

U.S.: 31

Japan: 12

Germany: 20

*

Studying math

U.S.: 3

Japan: 1

Germany: 1

*

Studying science

U.S.: 2

Japan: 1

Germany: 1

*

Other subjects

U.S.: 5

Japan: 3

Germany: 2

Source: IEA Third International Mathematics and Science Study

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

How They Scored

The study of math and science education involved 45 countries and 500,000 students. Some countries, shown in italics (*) below, did not meet the guidelines for ensuring accurate comparisons--such as guaranteeing that schools were selected randomly. Four countries either withdrew or failed to complete the testing process. Here are the results for eigth-graders, based on a scale of 200 to 800.

MATH ACHIEVEMENT

1. Singapore: 643

2. South Korea: 607

3. Japan: 605

4. Hong Kong: 588

5. Belgium (Flemish): 565

6. Czech Republic: 564

7. Slovak Republic: 547

8. Switzerland: 545

9. Netherlands: 541*

10. Slovenia: 541*

11. Bulgaria: 540*

12. Austria: 539*

13. France: 538

14. Hungary: 537

15. Russian Feder.: 535

16. Australia: 530*

17. Ireland: 527

18. Canada: 527

19. Belgium (French): 526*

20. Thailand: 522*

21. Israel: 522*

22. Sweden: 519

AVERAGE SCORE: 513

23. Germany: 509*

24. New Zealand: 508

25. England: 506

26. Norway: 503

27. Denmark: 502*

28. United States: 500

29. Scotland: 498*

30. Latvia (LSS): 493

31. Spain: 487

32. Iceland: 487*

33. Greece: 484*

34. Romania: 482

35. Lithuania: 477

36. Cyprus: 474

37. Portugal: 454

38. Iran: 428

39. Kuwait: 392*

40. Colombia: 385*

41. South Africa: 354*

****

SCIENCE ACHIEVEMENT

1. Singapore: 607

2. Czech Republic: 574

3. Japan: 571

4. Korea: 565

5. Bulgaria: 565*

6. Netherlands: 560*

7. Slovenia: 560*

8. Austria: 558*

9. Hungary: 554

10. England: 552

11. Belgium (Flemish): 550

12. Australia: 545*

13. Slovak Republic: 544

14. Russian Feder.: 538

15. Ireland: 538

16. Sweden: 535

17. United States: 534

18. Germany: 531*

19. Canada: 531

20. Norway: 527

21. New Zealand: 525

22. Thailand: 525*

23. Israel: 524*

24. Hong Kong: 522

25. Switzerland: 522

26. Scotland: 517*

27. Spain: 517

AVERAGE SCORE: 516

28. France: 498

29. Greece: 497*

30. Iceland: 494

31. Romania: 486*

32. Latvia (LSS): 485

33. Portugal: 480

34. Denmark: 478*

35. Lithuania: 476

36. Belgium (French): 571*

37. Iran: 470

38. Cyprus: 463

39. Kuwait: 430*

40. Colombia: 411*

41. South Africa: 326*

Note: Countries shown in italics did not satisfy one or more sampling guidelines.

****

KEY FINDINGS

In math, U.S. eighth-graders are above average in algebra, fractions, working with data and figuring probabilities. They are below average in geometry, measurement and understanding proportional relationships.

In science, U.S. eighth-graders score above average in earth science and life science and are particularly strong in their understanding of environmental issues. They are about average in chemistry and physics.

The content taught in U.S. eighth-grade math classrooms is about the same as what is taught in the seventh grade in other countries.

Source: IEA Third International Mathematics and Science Study