Math Courses Suggest Rigor, But Scores Stagnating Since 1993

American high schools are failing to educate their students in math and science. The long term trend in math skills has remained stationary since 1993 on one metric. And worse, similar international assessments show other countries improving in that time. "What American high school students know and what they can do in math have barely changed over the course of thirty years and not at all over the last fifteen," explained Mark Schneider. He argues that there's a delusion of rigor, with the grades attained on supposedly more complex courses not being reflected by an objective increase in skills.

It may be too late to regain ground internationally. Many are skeptical of comparing national and international standards, suggesting various methods and studies are flawed, but that doesn't negate the fact that every year that we fail to raise our test scores gives the rest of the world more time to catch up, or accelerate further into the distance.

Kenneth G Brill compares US failures on education to the Sputnik program — taking his cue from Thomas Freidman. But this time it's not just the Space Race that we're losing. "Unless we invest massively and now in math and science education ... we may find that we have eaten so much of our technology seed corn that we can't recover in time to win the upcoming energy race with China," he explains. Of course, this isn't just about China and the race to provide clean-energy, but the whole developing world finding themselves in a better position to challenge the U.S. with a new generation of smarter scientists.

Photo credit: Akash_K