Saturday, November 20, 2010

Why I worry about U.S. Competitiveness in the Future

I quote from a recent study:
Unfortunately, the percentage of students in the U.S. Class of 2009 who were highly accomplished in math is well below that of most countries with which the U.S. generally compares itself. No less than 30 of the 56 other countries that participated in the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) math test had a larger percentage of students who scored at the international equivalent of the advanced level on our National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) tests. While 6 percent of U.S. public and private school students rated as advanced in 8th-grade mathematics, 28 percent of Taiwanese students did.

The other states score even lower. Math is a good topic for these comparisons since there are fewer problems in language and focus that complicate comparisons between states and nations. I suspect it is also a good indicator of the success kids will have in science and engineering education and in the working in the modern economy of their future.

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