Mixed
marks for U.S. science, math
Eighth-graders do better on world test but
the fourth-graders lag
Wednesday, December 15, 2004 • BY BEN FELLER •
Associated Press
WASHINGTON -- U.S. eighth- graders are gaining on their
peers across the globe in science and math, but
fourth-graders are being passed as their test scores remain
stagnant, according to an international review of school
performance.
The 2003 test results released yesterday offer some hope
and relief to the United States, coming just a week after
its 15-year-olds did poorly in math in another prominent
comparison.
The achievement gap between black and white children is
shrinking, the new scores show, a central goal of the
government's education policies under President Bush.
Yet several countries, particularly in Asia, continue to
outperform the United States in science and math, fields at
the heart of research, innovation and economic
competitiveness.
Given this country's recent emphasis on achievement in
the early grades, the flat performance by fourth-graders
drew concern, and some playing down, from U.S.
officials.
The Trends in International Mathematics and Science
Study, or TIMSS, is a test of curriculum taught in all
participating countries, from chemistry and physics to
geometry and algebra. It is a respected benchmark of a
country's performance in primary and middle grades.
"It's really the only way we have to determine how the
United States as a nation is doing in preparing its children
and its students in math and science," said Russ Whitehurst,
director of the Institute of Education Sciences at the
Education Department.
Federal officials also suggested yesterday that a better
measure of U.S. achievement would be how students do on the
test known as the National Assessment of Educational
Progress. On that U.S. test, more closely aligned to
standards and content taught in schools here, fourth-graders
and eighth-graders made sizable gains at every level in math
in 2003.
In the new study, the United States is compared with
other industrialized countries and many poorer ones. Given
that range, the United States was above average across the
board. Singapore ranked first in both subjects in both
grades.
Representative samples of students from 45 countries
took the eighth-grade test. Students from 25 countries took
the fourth-grade exam. Among major findings for the U.S.
students:
- Eighth-graders improved their scores in science and
math since 1995, when the test first was given. While the
science progress has come largely since the last test --
in 1999 -- the math rise came mainly between 1995 and
1999 and not in recent years. The rising scores of
eighth-graders also gave the United States a higher
ranking relative to other countries.
- Fourth-graders did not improve or decline in science
or math since 1995, and as a result, they slipped in the
international rankings as other countries made gains.
- In both grades and both subjects, black students
closed their test-score gap with whites. Hispanic
students also closed the learning gap with whites in
eighth- grade science.
Business and academic leaders have been clamoring for
such attention to science and math so that students will be
ready for college and careers demanding technical
knowledge.
© 2004 The Star-Ledger. Used by NJ.com with
permission.
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