Research: US Education Crisis

US Trailing in Math Education:

For years, the United States has been losing its lead on a variety of fronts, but in terms of primary and secondary school education, we are coming up short.  A 2009-10 international assessment put the United States at 14th in Reading, 17th in Science, and 25th in Math out of 34 OECD nations.  That’s the bottom third in math among developed countries.  Another study published in 2011 by Harvard’s Program on Educational Policy and Governance, along with Education Next, found that the US ranked 17th in Reading and 32nd in Math (out of 60 countries that were measured).This same study concludes that for Math in particular, where just 32% of US kids test as proficient on advanced math, the long term impact of our weaker student preparation is measurably slower economic growth for the country—raising our kids’ Math proficiency to that of Canada or South Korea would add about 1% to GDP growth each year, they estimate.   Looking at New York specifically, on Math proficiency, New York State comes in 32nd in the US, below average for the country and ahead of just 18 other States and the District of Columbia.  On an international basis, that would place New York high schoolers behind 34 foreign countries.

Even worse for Minorities:

While nationwide, 32% of students were identified as proficient in Math, this is split significantly by race.  42% of Whites (still well below average for developed nations) and 50% of Asian-Americans were proficient in Math, but among underrepresented minorities, the results were significantly worse.  Just 11% of African-Americans, 15% of Hispanics, and 16% of Native Americans were identified as proficient in Math (this discrepancy was similar for Reading).  Here again, this lack of preparation has long term economic impacts, as we see unemployment rates of African-Americans about double that of their White counterparts.

Articles:

• The Math Revolution – positive article on recent gains in teens excelling in advanced math (http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/03/the-math-revolution/426855/)
• Globally Challenged: Are US students ready to compete? (http://www.hks.harvard.edu/pepg/PDF/Papers/PEPG11-03_GloballyChallenged.pdf)
• Obama proposes $1 billion effort to boost science, math achievements (http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2012/07/obama_proposes_1_billion_effor.html)
• US students’ low Math test proficiency could have consequences for GDP (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/17/math-test-proficiency-naep-pisa_n_929498.html)
• American Students: What they can learn from Shanghai’s academic performance (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/04/american-students-what-th_n_1076268.html)
• US Teens Lag as China Soars on International Test (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-07/teens-in-u-s-rank-25th-on-math-test-trail-in-science-reading.html)
• What gives boys their Math edge? (http://www.businessinsider.com/youll-be-surprised-what-this-study-says-gives-boys-their-math-edge-2012-7)
• How do you motivate your kids to do math when summer draws near? (http://gailsscoop.com/how-do-you-motivate-a-child-to-do-math-when-the-sun-is-shining-and-their-friends-are-calling/)