Date: Fri, 27 Feb 1998 11:18:06 -0500 (EST)
From: AIP listserver <fyi@aip.org>
To: fyi-mailing@aip.org
Subject: FYI #35 - Math/Science Education Study
FYI
The American Institute of Physics Bulletin of Science Policy News
Number 35: February 27, 1998
U.S. 12th-Graders Perform Poorly on International Math & Science Study
"These studies suggest that students appear to disengage from learning critical mathematics and science content as they progress through the school system." --NSF Director Neal Lane
From scoring comfortably above the international average in math and science at the fourth-grade level, U.S. students drop to about average by eighth grade, and by twelfth grade they outperform only two other participating countries in general math and science knowledge. These are the initial findings from the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), billed as the "largest, most comprehensive, and most rigorous international study of schools and student achievement ever conducted."
The TIMSS assessment was given to a half-million students - in fourth grade, eighth grade, and at the end of their secondary education - in 1995. The data gathered was analyzed and presented by the Education Department's National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) in three reports. The first provided results on eighth-graders (see FYI #159, 1996), the second discussed fourth-graders (see FYI #84, 1997), and the most recent report, released on February 24, looks at the results for students in their last year of secondary school.
"Pursuing Excellence: A Study of U.S. Twelfth-grade Mathematics and Science Achievement in International Context" compares the performance of U.S. twelfth-graders to students completing secondary school in 20 other countries in the areas of general math and science knowledge, and to 15 other countries in advanced mathematics and physics. Asian nations, many of which participated in the fourth- and eighth-grade TIMSS studies, did not participate at this grade level.
The dramatic results are: U.S. twelfth-graders performed among the lowest of 21 countries on the assessment of mathematical and scientific general knowledge. In math, U.S. students were outperformed by those in 14 other countries, had similar scores to students in four countries, and performed better than students in only two countries, Cyprus and South Africa. In science, U.S. students were outperformed by students in 11 countries, performed similarly to those in seven countries, and again outperformed only students in Cyprus and South Africa. The U.S.'s lower relative ranking in general math (worse than 14 countries and similar to four) than in general science (worse than 11 countries and similar to 7) continues the same pattern found in both the fourth- and eighth-grade assessments. The U.S. was one of 3 countries that did not demonstrate a significant gender gap in general math. Although all the participating nations except South Africa showed a gender gap in science, favoring males, the U.S. had one of the smallest differences between male and female achievement.
The TIMSS questions were designed to assess "how well students had acquired the mathematical and scientific skills and knowledge judged by an international committee of experts to be necessary for all citizens in their daily life," and were "given to a random sample of all students at whatever grade their nation or program of studies set as the end of their secondary schooling, regardless of whether or not they were currently taking mathematics or science at the time of the study."
A subset of advanced students, from fewer countries, also participated in a comparison of higher-level mathematics and physics. The advanced mathematics assessment included the categories of calculus; numbers, equations and functions; and geometry. In a comparison of achievement among 16 nations, U.S. twelfth-grade students were bested by students in 11 countries, and did not perform better than a single country. Among the content areas, U.S. students were relatively weakest in geometry. Eight countries, including the U.S., showed a significant gender gap, favoring males, in all three content areas.
The physics categories included mechanics; electricity and magnetism; particle, quantum, and modern physics; heat; and wave phenomena. U.S. students again did not outperform any of the 15 other countries, and 14 of them outperformed the U.S. While among the lowest performers in all five content areas, U.S. students performed relatively most poorly in mechanics, and electricity and magnetism. In all the participating nations except Latvia, males outperformed females in physics. For U.S. students, this gender gap existed in all of the content areas except heat.
The report also looks for factors in the students' schooling and lives that might account for differing achievement levels, focusing specifically on the general math results. For example, it finds that the proportion of graduating students currently
taking mathematics or science was lower in the United States than the average for all participating countries. U.S. twelfth-graders spent fewer hours per day studying or doing homework than the international average; more of those U.S. twelfth-graders worked at paid jobs, and worked longer hours, than did students in any other TIMSS nation. Students in the U.S. spent the same amount of time watching TV and videos as the international average. The report concludes that while there may be differences across countries, "few appear to be systematically related to our performance in twelfth grade compared to the other countries participating in TIMSS."
An initial analysis of the data highlights two factors that appear to affect performance: For some students, the last year of secondary school was not necessarily twelfth grade; average student age and number of years of schooling varied from country to country. Additionally, in both math and science, the content covered by the TIMSS study was introduced later in the U.S. curriculum, on average, than in the other countries as a whole.
Officials present for the release of the new report urged continued efforts at education reform. Remarking that "the fourth-grade results were more favorable," NSF Director Neal Lane said "I believe there is a connection between those results and the initiation in the early 1990s of math and science education reform efforts in states and localities across the country.... The majority of twelfth-graders tested in 1995 - the results of which we see today - would not have been exposed to those reform interventions." He noted that President Clinton's FY 1999 budget request includes a $60 million initiative "to improve science and mathematics generally and middle-school math in particular." Education Secretary Richard Riley added, "We give our children a good foundation in the basics. Unfortunately, math and science education gets stuck in a rut' in the middle grades. We run in place and then allow the majority of our students to check out' of rigorous math and science courses in high school."
The three reports from the TIMSS study are available on the Internet at http://www.nces.ed.gov/timss/
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Audrey T. Leath
Public Information Division
The American Institute of Physics
fyi@aip.org
(301) 209-3094
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