Asian, European students top U.S. World math, science scores measured

WASHINGTON – America’s eighth-graders still are largely outperformed by children in industrialized Asian and European nations, scoring only at average levels on the latest round of international math and science tests.

Despite more than four years of efforts to improve American student performance in science and math, a report released Tuesday shows little improvement for the middle-schoolers from the first set of uniform tests in 1995.

U.S. educators generally blamed a lack of follow-through on improvement plans developed after the 1995 tests, which also included fourth- and 12th-graders. The earlier tests showed not only that U.S. students made average scores but seemed to do worse as they grew older. The latest tests, conducted in 1999, covered only eighth-graders.

“It’s not surprising that in four years we haven’t seen real changes,” said Christopher Cross of the Council on Basic Education, a nonprofit advocacy group in Washington. “We’ve gotten the message. We just haven’t taken it to the classroom level.

“What would be really upsetting is that in another four years we would see things looking exactly the same,” Cross said.

The 1999 test of eighth-graders did show U.S. students scored a few points above the average score of all nations.

Education Secretary Richard Riley credited U.S. educators with efforts to boost learning: “There is a new mood about education in America … everything I’ve seen tells me the American people are rising to the challenge.”

The testing, organized by the International Association for the Evaluation of Education Achievement and conducted by individual education authorities, showed that in 1999 math and science testing, a dozen nations out of 38 participating in the study outperformed the United States.

They are Australia, the Flemish (Dutch) part of Belgium, Canada, Taiwan, Finland, Hungary, Japan, Korea, Netherlands, Singapore, the Slovak Republic and Slovenia.

U.S. students shared the average field with Bulgaria, Latvia and New Zealand; American children did better than those in 17 other countries in both science and math.

Students were asked questions about algebra, geometry, physics, chemistry and other topics that children would have been expected to have covered at their grade level.

Questions went well beyond simple math and science knowledge. In a typical math question from the test, which was translated into each country’s language, testers were given the problem 691+208 and asked to show which of several other sums were closest. The choices were 600+200, 700+200, 700+300 and 900+200. Answer: 700+200.

Some questions required detailed calculations or explanations.

Other nations’ reactions to their students’ standings varied widely.

“We are looking at ourselves, not comparing ourselves with other countries,” said Thailand’s Chaiwat Watcharamai, a national education testing official. Thailand scored below the U.S. in both science and math.

With average national performance set around 500, math scores ranged from 604 in Singapore to 275 in South Africa; science scores ranged from 569 in Taiwan to 243 in South Africa. The U.S. score was 502 in math; 515 in science.

France and Germany did not participate, the only major industrialized nations that didn’t. The tests, which all nations were invited to give and were expected to pay for, drew three African countries, Middle Eastern states including Jordan and Iran, several Eastern European countries and a lone South American nation, Chile.

More than 100,000 children, including 9,072 from the United States, were picked randomly from each nation’s eighth-graders or the national equivalent and were tested in the primary language of instruction.

The study also analyzed results from 23 nations that gave the eighth-grade tests both in 1995 and 1999.

U.S. Education Department officials, which funded and administered the U.S. tests along with the National Science Foundation, cautioned against comparisons – either to current nations or to 1995 rankings.

“It would be incorrect to assume no learning is taking place,” said department researcher Patrick Gonzales. The scores “could indicate a pace of change in other nations that is significantly faster.”

Some experts pointed to parts of the report where children and their teachers also were asked about homework, lessons and study habits.

The U.S. version, released separately from an international version that lacked details about American students, said U.S. children spent more time on computers and using tools like calculators and workbooks than their foreign peers. But they did less homework.

“We have not yet honed in on the importance of science and math education,” said Cross.

The study, called the Third International Mathematics and Science Study-Repeat, was financed by the World Bank and participating governments and carried out according to international guidelines.