WASHINGTON – American high school students have a poorer mastery of basic math concepts than their counterparts in most other leading industrialized nations, according to a major international survey released Monday.
The triennial PISA study ranked the United States 24th out of 29 countries belonging to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a Paris-based group that represents the world’s richest countries. Students from Finland and South Korea scored best in the survey, which measured the ability of 15-year-olds to solve real-life math problems.
The results suggest that, at the secondary-school level, the learning gap between the United States and its competitors in Europe and Asia is widening. U.S. students continue to lag behind students elsewhere in basic math skills, despite recent gains in standardized tests at the national level.
“The overall message from this report is that the U.S. needs to do better,” said Eugene Hickok, deputy education secretary. “We need to get young people interested in math and science at a younger age. … We need more qualified math teachers.”
A previous study, released three years ago, showed that U.S. students were in the middle of the pack when it came to reading but lagged in math. Since then, the United States has fallen behind countries such as Poland, Hungary and Spain by some measures of math proficiency.
A more detailed comparison of U.S. students’ performance in math with the achievements of students in 24 other countries over more than a decade will be released early next week. The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, known as TIMSS, is administered once every four years. Experts expect a relatively good performance by U.S. students at the elementary school level, but a sharp drop-off in middle school and high school.
In addition to the world’s wealthiest countries, 10 non-OECD countries also took part in the survey. The United States performed slightly ahead of Russia and on par with Latvia, but behind Hong Kong and Liechtenstein. Males outperformed females virtually everywhere on the math test, except for Iceland. In reading tests, females were uniformly ahead.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
