U.S. Students Top Only Third World in Math

American students scored lower in mathematics than those from a dozen other industrialized nations, according to a 17-nation education study whose first results were published last week. In most areas of the study, the Americans outperformed only students from Third World countries.

Among eighth-graders, students from Japan, the Netherlands and Hungary scored the highest on tests that covered arithmetic, algebra, geometry, statistics and measurement.

The average score of American students was lower than the overall average of all the participants. The American average score ranked above only Swaziland, Nigeria, Thailand and Sweden.

In a separate 10-nation comparison in which the top 5% of 18-year-olds were tested in algebra and calculus, the American students scored lowest among all participants.

‘More Alarming’

“These results are more serious and more alarming than those that were reported in ‘A Nation at Risk,’ ” said University of Illinois Professor Herbert Walberg, an expert on international education comparisons. He referred to the 1983 federal education report that decried the sorry state of American education, but relied largely on international education studies from the early 1960s.

The latest results come from testing that took place in 1982, but whose full results--because of what were described as funding problems and international politics--have not been released. Last week, the U.S. Department of Education published some of the scores without comment in a research report. The Times, meanwhile, obtained more detailed results from so-far unpublished reports from the New Zealand Council for Educational Research.

U.S. Education Secretary William J. Bennett said he was disturbed by the poor performance of the American students and blamed it on the failure of many students to take a rigorous course of study in the middle and upper grades.

“What really jars me are the results for our top 5%,” Bennett said in a telephone interview. “It is distressing that our top kids would come in last. But our children are capable. It’s a question of what we’re giving them, what they are studying.”

Japanese Work Harder

“The Japanese don’t use some sort of magic. They work harder at it,” Bennett added.

To the surprise of some American educators, the study found that American students are receiving more hours of instruction in mathematics than students from other nations. But the math curriculum in Japan and the top-scoring European nations was more intensive and faster-paced.

Despite a longer school year, Japanese students had an average of 101 hours of mathematics instruction at age 13, while American eighth-graders had 145 hours. The Japanese classes were larger, with an average of 41 students, compared to 26 in the typical U.S. classroom.

However, “By grade 7, the Japanese and European students have computation behind them and are moving into algebra, geometry and mathematical problem solving,” said Joseph Crosswhite, professor emeritus at Ohio State University and a consultant on the study.

“In the United States and Canada, the curriculum at grade 8 is still dominated by arithmetic computation,” said Crosswhite, current president of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.

1964 Scores Disappointing

The first international mathematics study took place in 1964 and included 12 nations. Then, American students tended to score near the median, results that were considered disappointing.

“We’ve slipped in most categories since 1964, particularly in problem-solving and the higher-order thinking skills,” Crosswhite said.

In the mid-1960s, the low performance was often blamed on the so-called “New Math” introduced in that era.

“These kids are not the products of the New Mathematics. They came through the ‘back-to-basics’ era,” Crosswhite said.

Officials also discounted the possibility that students were relying too heavily on calculators or computers to do their work. The study found that in the American schools of 1982, only one in 20 eighth-graders, and one in three high school seniors, regularly used a calculator in the classroom.

Central Ministries of Education

Most of the nations that ranked highest in mathematics have school systems that are run by central ministries of education. By contrast, educational authority in the United States resides with states and local boards of education.

“I’m struck by the inconsistency in how math is taught from school to school and district to district” in the United States, said Larry Suter, a statistician at the U.S. Department of Education. “If you look at the Japanese schools, or the ones in France and Hungary, they seem to take on the hard subjects earlier, and they are consistent across all the schools.”

Despite the poor showing of American students, officials did not dispute the results. Instead, most said they represent the best evidence on how well students are learning in various nations.

A team of mathematicians, originally representing 21 countries, designed the tests to gauge students’ knowledge of math at age 13, before significant percentages of them drop out of school. Among the 18-year-olds, the study team tested students who represented the top 5% of math students at that age--those who would most likely seek careers in mathematics and science.

In the United States, 6,648 students were tested in a random sample of 280 American classrooms.

“If there’s any bias in our sample, it would be in favor of more suburban and rural schools and fewer center-city schools,” said Suter. “So, if there’s any bias, it would be toward higher scores than we otherwise would have had.”

Ranking above the United States in the eighth-grade sample were, in order: Japan, the Netherlands, Hungary, Belgium, France, Canada (British Columbia schools), Hong Kong, Canada (Ontario schools), Scotland, England and Wales, Finland, New Zealand and Israel. Ranking below the United States, in order, were Sweden, Thailand, Nigeria and Swaziland.

On the 12th-grade tests, the ranking was: Japan, Finland, Canada (Ontario), Hungary, Sweden, New Zealand, Belgium (Flemish-language schools), Canada (British Columbia), England and Wales, Scotland, Belgium (French-language schools), and the United States.

HOW EIGHTH GRADERS COMPARE

A 1982 study of a sampling from among all eighth graders from different countries shows comparative achievement in mathematics by percentile. The 50th percentile reflects average achievement.

Japan 62%

Netherlands 57%

Hungary 56%

Belgium (Flemish) 53%

France 53%

Canada (British Columbia) 52%

Hong Kong 50%

Canada (Ontario) 49%

Scotland 48%

England and Wales 47%

Finland 47%

New Zealand 46%

Israel 45%

United States 45%

Sweden 44%

Thailand 42%

Nigeria 34%

Swaziland 31%

Source: U.S. Department of Education