State’s Share of Math, Science Students Lags

California’s public high schools lag behind the U.S. average in the share of their students who take advanced math and science courses and in the share of math and science teachers who majored in their subject in college, a new study says.

The study, undertaken to permit state-by-state comparisons in math and science education, found that the nation has sharply increased its high school curriculum requirements in the two subjects. Between 1982 and 1990, the number of graduating high school seniors with two years of algebra increased from 35% to 49%, while the share with one chemistry course grew from 31% to 45%, it found.

In California, only 44% of graduating seniors had taken two years of algebra in 1990, while only 33% had taken a chemistry course, according to the study, which was conducted by the Council of Chief State School Officers.

Bill Honig, California’s superintendent of public instruction, said the results reflect that California for many years did not emphasize math and science instruction like other states, as well as the higher proportion of disadvantaged minority students in California schools.

“People just didn’t take math out here and we’re still behind what the rest of the country does,” Honig said. “There’s still got to be an organized, comprehensive effort to get out the word on this.”

Honig noted that black and Latino students make up about 45% of the California enrollment, compared to 30% for the country. He said the state has made some progress in encouraging students to take more advanced science and math courses.

The study found that nationwide, 42% of high school math teachers were math majors in college. In California, the figure was 33%. Nationwide, 54% of science teachers were science majors, while in California, 52% majored in the subject.

Honig acknowledged that California has had a problem attracting math and science teachers, which may be partly a result of the higher competition in California from high-technology companies.

At a Monday news conference in Washington, Gordon Ambach, executive director of the Council of Chief State School Officers, said he was heartened by the rise in curriculum standards. Yet, the standard “hasn’t gone up nearly far enough” to make American schools the “world class” systems that they must become in a technological world, he said.

Ambach noted that even with the higher standards, less than half of America’s graduating high school seniors have taken two science courses and only about half have taken three mathematics courses.

“That gives an idea of what distance we must travel in the course of this decade,” he said. “I am discouraged that it hasn’t gone faster.”

Math and Science Rankings

Here is how states compare in percentage of students taking higher-level math and science classes by the time they graduate.

Algebra: 2

Montana: 65

Maine: 64

Idaho: 64

Louisiana: 64

North Dakota: 64

Utah: 63

Connecticut: 61

Oklahoma: 60

Missouri: 58

Mississippi: 58

Pennsylvania: 57

Virginia: 55

Minnesota: 55

South Carolina: 55

Kentucky: 54

Nebraska: 54

Tennessee: 54

Texas: 54

Maryland: 51

North Carolina: 51

Iowa: 50

Arkansas: 48

Kansas: 47

New Mexico: 47

Ohio: 47

New York: 46

Alabama: 46

Indiana: 45

CALIFORNIA: 44

Delaware: 43

Florida: 42

West Virginia: 42

District of Columbia: 39

Illinois: 39

Wisconsin: 36

Hawaii: 33

Nevada: 32

Wyoming: 29

First-year Physics

Connecticut: 36

Pennsylvania: 29

New York: 28

Iowa: 27

Maryland: 27

Wyoming: 25

Montana: 24

North Dakota: 24

Minnesota: 23

Virginia: 23

Alabama: 21

Hawaii: 21

Louisiana: 21

Nebraska: 21

Illinois: 20

Ohio: 20

Utah: 20

Delaware: 19

Florida: 19

Indiana: 19

Kansas: 17

Mississippi: 17

CALIFORNIA: 16

Missouri: 16

South Carolina: 16

Idaho: 15

New Mexico: 15

N. Carolina: 15

Kentucky: 14

District of Columbia: 13

Nevada: 13

Arkansas: 13

Texas: 12

Tennessee: 11

West Virginia: 11

Wisconsin: 11

Oklahoma: 10

Data incomplete or not available from: Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Daokta, Vermont and Washington.

Source: U.S. Department of Education