Math Skills Survey Shows U.S. Lags Behind

3l1za writes "The New York Times reports that the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has released its results (pdf) for a test of mathematical skills given to 15 year olds in 40 different countries. A few apparent anomalies: The US kids rated 28th of 40 (so in the bottom third) while the Czech Republic, which spends in education 1/3 of what the US spends, ranked in the top 10. Further, only about 1/3 of US kids reported that they did not feel as though they were good at math, whereas about 2/3 of Koreans reported this--and the Koreans ranked in the top three. 'Mr. Schleicher said that students in countries that emphasized theorems and rote learning tended not to do as well as those that emphasized the more practical aspects of mathematics.'"

Comments

My elementary school

[meganthom]

More and more, I am seeing that my elementary school must have been an oddity in the US. We were a public school in a small town in TN, of all places, but it was extremely progressive. There was a mix of rote- and practical learning taught at each level. In second grade, we learned the multiplication tables up to 12s, had regular 4M (100 questions in less than 4 minutes) tests, and spent a large amount of time on accounting. We even learned some (very) basic algebra. Throughout elementary school, we had these math projects that involved physical objects, and our tests were generally in word-problem form. Then, in fifth grade, all the kids who were good at math were sent to learn pre-algebra and algebra 1 through interactive computer programs while the other kids got more hands-on help with their math woes. And at some point, we had fraction-based space-invaders computer games to play in between learning segments...

Someday, maybe I'll tell you all about our phys. ed., art, and music programs. =)

And in contrast, in Korea...

[LiberalApplication]

In this country, there's a huge stigma attached to being good at math. If you are good at math, you're a nerd, where as all the cool kids suck at math, and are proud of that fact. Change the perceptions, and you'll go a long way toward improving the scores.

...academics in high-school are extremely competitive, with large numbers of students enrolled in afterschool study programs. It's actually a point of pride to be academically competent, and it's not unusual for ones' childrens' achievements to be the subject of local gossip, for better or worse, regardless of socioeconomic status.

Re:Statistically invalid samples

[badmammajamma]

True, they do have superior educational systems. I believe this is primarily due to the fact that they don't put up with the bullshit our teachers do. In our schools, if a teacher so much as yells at a student, they are suspended and warned that their job is at risk. Oddly, we did so much better back when our teachers could take a paddle to the kids. Nowadays there is no respect by the kids show for their educators or the educational system. Fix that, and you fix the problem.

I know the exact moment math became

[geekoid]

interesting to me.

When I was taught that you can tell if a wall is straight with only a measuring tape.
3 foot out make mark
4 foot up. make mark.
mearsure the distance between the marks, should be 5 feet.

Canada ranked third

[DJ_Goldfingerz]

Woo-hoo!

And to improve the actual performance of Americans, it's not out of 40 but out of 41 countries. And in the news paper I read this morning, it said US ranked 24th not 28th, except I couldn't confirm with the OECD's site.

Re:Even worse in minority communities

[Kunta Kinte]

Imagine being a nerdy black kid. I was. The black kids sometimes though that I was "trying to be white" because I was good at math. The white kids often resented that I was "showing off" that I was good at math.

As another nerdy black kid, I have had plenty of time coming to terms with that phenomena. The problem is race perception.

Many very well-meaning people unknowingly sterotype the intelligence and preferences of others. They reserve their limited use the latest "street slang" for you, even if you usually converse with them in near perfect english. They comment that the music at the party sucks and they'd much rather rap hoping to strike a cord. They are nice people, but that attitude is very dangerous when that person needs to interview you for a job or somehow otherwise assess your capabilities.

The sad thing is that after a while people begin to lean towards what is expected of them.

I highly, highly recommend Da Capo Best Music Writing 2004 . The essays in this book cover race and other socio-economic factors affecting pop culture and race perception, amongst over things. Coves all the new trends, eg. What does the Bohemian movement and modern rap have in common? This was a mind-opening book, the best I've read all year.

Putting it in a personal context

[jmichaelg]

My son graduated from a private American high school with an A average, earned 5's on all five of his AP courses, SAT's in the mid 1400's. He ended up going to UC Berkeley.

Last year, he took a Quantum Mechanics class. At the course's beginning, the prof said the pace would be harsh but he figured most students would cope. Mid-terms showed otherwise. My son earned a 75% on the mid-term. He was depressed until he found out the class average was in the 40's. That made him feel better until he found out that his house mates aced the test. His house mates are from Singapore and Taiwan.

When he asked them how they had managed to ace the mid term, they all shrugged their shoulders and said they'd seen the material in high school. They had seen the material in high school for multiple reasons. The typical Taiwanese goes to school 220 days out of a year instead of 180 here in California. The school days are longer, typically 8-5 instead of 8:30 to 2:30 here. The elementary teachers have strong math skills as opposed to our elemetary teachers. Parents in Asia expect more from their children than American parents do and the end results are Asian children have been trouncing American children academically for the past 20 years.

In case you're wondering about the source of all the facts cited above, here are the citations.

The story isn't completely grim however. The United States is nothing if not adaptable. The alternative school movement in the U.S. has made an opening for schools like this one, this one and KIPP schools to function. As the existence and efficacy of these kinds of options becomes more commonly recognized, American education will shift.

Re:It all comes down to the parents.

[drew]

Why shouldn't I also be able to rely on an expert to teach my kids what I'm not really equipped or qualified for myself.

you should, but that's not really the issue. as another poster mentioned, many americans today see the school system as a free baby sitter program. by sending their kids off to school, they feel they are absolved of any responsibility for their kids' educations. unfortunately, things don't work that way. kids learn from their parents, whether the parents like it or admit it. they learn by emulation and observation. if the parents just see school as a way to not have to worry about their kids while the state educates them, then the kids won't care about doing well in school either. and sending your kid to a private school (in and of itself) won't help your kids either. one of the biggest reasons private schools tend to perform better than public schools is that the parents who are willing to send their kids to private schools are more likely actually care about the education their child is receiving, and impress that upon their children.

my parents are both teachers, and i know a lot of teachers both among friends my age and people who are old enough to have been one of my teachers. in general, students who do well in school are more likely to have parents who take an interest in what is going on in school, and poor students tend to have parents that could care less about what happens to their child from the time they leave for work in the morning until they get home.

What it means to be cool

[JavaRob]

Until we impress on young minds the fact that cool or uncool makes no difference when you're grown and penniless

An interesting tangent on this -- my wife grew up in Malaysia, and when she was a kid the smartest kids *were* the most popular. No one wanted to hang out with the kids who were doing poorly in their classes, because they weren't cool. Appearance mattered somewhat, too, but was less of a factor. And all the kids she knew *liked* vegetables -- she was totally baffled when she learned about how everyone in the US "knows" that kids just automatically don't like vegetables, need special kids menus with chicken fingers, etc.. None of her friends were like that. Here favorite food growing up was spinach (still is, actually). Yes, I'm totally serious.

Malaysia has problems of their own that seriously hinder education, like blatantly racist policies controlling access to higher education, but the totally different path to "cool" is worth noting. It's NOT automatic that the "nerds" are unpopular (and then never learn proper social skills...), or even that there is some derogatory name for them.

I wish I could follow this up with some good suggestions for fixing this problem... but I'm kind of lost for answers on that one. The first step is at least pointing it out -- then maybe we can work on building better ways for kids to actually use what they learn to do cool stuff; that should help.