12th-Grade Math, Science Scores

Re “An F in Math, an F in Science,” editorial, Feb. 26:

The Times is dead wrong about the reason for the poor showing of U.S. students in math and physical science at the 12th-grade level. The editorial blames the poor results on U.S. students memorizing facts instead of thinking and creating. The reason for the poor showing in advanced science is teacher training. In other countries, high school science teachers need a bachelor’s and sometimes a master’s degree in their scientific discipline. Here, it’s a joke! We have no such stringent requirements. That’s why our students are shortchanged!

As for memorization, as Steven Dutch of the University of Wisconsin states, “Memorization, often thought to be the antithesis of creativity, is in reality the indispensable basis of creativity. Creative insights tend to come at odd moments . . . and can only happen if the mind has a large store of memorized information to manipulate.”

The reason our students may do too much memorization and not enough problem-solving is because poorly trained teachers find it easier to teach facts. But to go to the extreme and say knowing facts is the reason for our problems is dead wrong. We need to teach plenty of facts along with problem-solving, but we must do both well!

STEVEN B. OPPENHEIMER PhD

Cal State Northridge

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* There may be no direct correlation between the low achievement of U.S. high school students in science and math and the low number of days they spend in school in comparison to higher-achieving students in other countries. On the other hand, it’s hard to imagine how our students can keep up if they attend school only four days a week.

In Los Angeles we have an alarming number of what are known as “pupil-free days,” when the teachers attend school but the students don’t. At my daughter’s high school (LAUSD), every Monday in February was either a holiday or a pupil-free day. On average, every month has at least one such day, not to mention “minimum” days when students are dismissed early.

Do the math: How much academic learning occurs on a day with no classes? Zero.

GRETCHEN B. NORTH

Van Nuys

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* The results of the study are apparently quite disappointing for the U.S. I have never been a great defender of our public schools but I suspect they are getting railroaded. Notice that the top-scoring countries are mainly northern and eastern European countries. Many have a type of tracking system whereby students are sorted out at about the junior high level into either college prep or vocational programs. The vocational students do not take advanced mathematics and physics courses.

In American high schools, students of far more varied ability levels may tackle advanced courses such as physics. Before condemning the American science and math instruction, I think we should know more about the fairness of the sample populations. Are they really comparable?

Our schools have many flaws, but neither a national test nor an elitist system modeled after the German or Russian schools will improve them.

CAROLYN FORTE

Monrovia