WHERE AMERICAN STUDENTS STAND TODAY: In Trouble
“What science can there be more noble, more excellent, more useful for men, more admirably high and demonstrative, than this of mathematics?” Benjamin Franklin
The Problem Our nation’s children are falling further and further behind their international peers in almost every area of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education.
The Data
The average mathematics scores of American fourth grade students placed our nation’s performance behind that of ten other countries – including Singapore, Japan, the Russian Federation, England, and Latvia.1
The most recent Organization
for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) study placed the US behind 20 other countries – including Finland, Canada, New Zealand, Germany, Czech Republic, Ireland, Hungary, Poland, and France – for science literacy, and behind 24 other countries for mathematics literacy.2
In fact,
U.S. scores in both science and mathematics literacy were below the OECD average.
The Reality
Most American middle-schoolers would rather do chores, eat vegetables, or go to the dentist than do math homework.3 And while a majority of those same students said that math was important to them and they wished to perform better in the subject, the fact is that our math and science teachers often are ill-equipped to teach the subjects they are hired to teach. An American high school student has a 70% chance of being taught English by a teacher with an English background, but has only a 40% chance of being taught chemistry by a teacher with a chemistry background. Such a disconnect would not occur in a business environment.
National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education and Institute of Education Sciences, Highlights from PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) 2006, 2007. PISA is conducted every three years for thirty OECD countries. 3
1 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS, 2007) 2
A survey of 1,000 American students between the ages of 11 and 13 conducted by Raytheon Corporation/KRC Research in 2005
Educating the Innovators of Tomorrow: A High-Tech Industry Blueprint | 7
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