American Fourth-Graders Score High Students Outperform Peers From Other Nations In Math, Science
American fourth-graders are outperforming their peers from many other countries in math and science, according to a new international study.
The study, compiled by the U.S.
Department of Education with the help of similar government agencies worldwide, draws a much brighter portrait of American education than the same international assessment of eighth-graders did last year. That report raised new alarm about the quality of teaching and curricula in the nation’s schools because in math and science American students trailed well behind students in many other nations.
The latest findings, which were unveiled Tuesday by President Clinton at a White House ceremony, present more evidence that the problems American students have in math and science are most serious, and perhaps even isolated, in middle schools. Elementary schools, the study suggests, are doing a much better job.
In all, 26 nations took part in the fourth-grade study. It does not provide exact rankings for each nation, but shows that the United States exceeds the average international score in math and science and places at or near the top tier of countries in both subjects.
Last year, in the eighth-grade study, American students finished below the international average in math and only slightly above it in science.
This time, the showing of American fourth-graders in science was especially strong. Fourth-graders in only one other nation - South Korea - had significantly higher science scores than the United States. American fourth-graders performed roughly the same in science as students in Japan and Australia, and much better than those in Canada and England.
“Obviously this is not something we would have projected after the last test of eighth-graders,” said Pascal Forgione, the commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics, which supervised the report.
“It seems our kids are getting a good foundation in the primary grades. But we need to focus more on the years after that.”
Clinton and Education Secretary Richard Riley praised the results of the latest study and said that one of the primary goals the nation’s governors set for schools at the start of the decade - to make American students first in the world in math and science by the year 2000 - is now in reach, at least for fourth-graders.
“But let’s not kid ourselves,” Clinton said. “We are still nowhere near where we need to be in these other areas.”
The United States was the only nation of those participating in the study where students scored above the international average in math for fourth grade, then below it for eighth grade.
The study does not offer any core reason for the decline in scores from fourth to eighth grade among American students, and education officials Tuesday did not cite any clear cause for it, either.
“Unfortunately, eighth-grade math has really become kind of the missing link in education,” Riley said. “We need to focus like a laser beam on boosting math skills in the middle grades.”
Many educators suggested that the roots of the problem are diverse. The study noted, for example, that eighth-graders nationwide report less enthusiasm for learning both math and science than do fourth-graders. It also said that students in elementary school science classes tend to learn fewer topics in more depth than they do in later grades.
In the earlier international study of eighth-graders, one of the central criticisms of American math and science instruction in middle schools was that it is often too superficial - with teachers racing through topics and emphasizing rote drills over creative exercises.
More than 11,000 American fourth-graders from 190 elementary schools nationwide took part in the international study, which is the most comprehensive attempt ever made to compare the academic work of students from around the world. As part of the study, each student took a 90-minute exam in math and science that included both multiple choice and problem-solving questions. Researchers also assessed the curricula in every nation that participated, surveyed thousands of teachers, and even examined how much homework students receive and how much they watch television.
The study found the American fourth-graders receive roughly the same amount of homework as students in other nations, and have about the same class sizes. But it also noted that American elementary schools spend slightly more time each week teaching math and science than elementary schools in other nations.
Last year, the international study of eighth-graders showed that American students scored lower than many other nations in math and science even though they tended to spend more class time on each subject and had to do more homework.
The fourth-grade study is smaller than the one that tested eighth-graders around the world. Fifteen fewer countries, including France and Germany, participated this time.
xxxx Passing the test The Third International Mathematics and Science Study showed American fourth-graders second among 26 countries in science, outpaced only by South Korea. In math, U.S. students came in behind five other countries: Singapore, South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong and the Czech Republic. The report showed an average U.S. fourth-grade math score of 545 and a science average of 565, both above the international averages of 531 for math and 528 for science.