Shallowness, Politics Cited for Poor Math Showing

America’s shallow approach to teaching math and congressional reluctance to allow even voluntary national standards to measure performance contribute to the poor showing by American students in international comparisons of math and and science achievement, Education Secretary Richard W. Riley said Tuesday.

Speaking to reporters and editors at The Times’ Washington Bureau, Riley emphasized that although no single policy would reverse the trend, a combination of sustained local, state and national efforts could make a difference.

But first, he said, lawmakers must put politics behind them.

On the administration’s difficulty last year in getting Congress to approve voluntary national tests that cities and states could adopt, Riley said: “Republicans don’t like the word ‘national’ and Democrats don’t like the word ‘test.’ ”

“So we’re out for a national test. [But] if you can clear out the politics--don’t say ‘the Clinton program’ or ‘the Republican program,’ but say this is a description of a program,” then there is broad acceptance among citizens, he said.

Riley said that one of the weakest links in the U.S. education chain is that schools try to cover too much ground. “In eighth-grade math, we have 32 or 33 topics. In Japan, they have seven, but they go real deep into seven,” he said, adding that Japanese students are pushed to think creatively and analytically about how to solve complex math problems.

“Curriculum that was an inch deep and a mile wide” contributed to American students’ low math scores on the international tests released last week, Riley said.

In that 21-nation Third International Mathematics and Science study, U.S. 12th-graders ranked 19th, outperforming only Cyprus and South Africa. In the category of general science knowledge, U.S. 12th-graders ranked 16th.

At higher levels, the American educational system does little to encourage students with an aptitude for math to pursue careers in fields that require sophisticated technology skills. Riley said most graduate computer science programs require students to have taken computer science at the undergraduate level, which has the effect of shrinking the potential work force for high-technology jobs. In Europe, anyone who has a strong background in math or physics can enroll in a master’s program in computer science.

In the United States, the number of master’s degrees awarded in computer science dropped by about 50% from 1986 to 1995. “It’s an incredible number,” Riley said.

Another issue raised dealt with the problematic quality of math and science teaching. “Most American teachers are as uncomfortable with mathematics as most adults are in the United States--they’re scared to death of it,” said Michael Smith, deputy secretary of education.

Riley said he is recommending significant changes in the curriculum at teachers colleges to encourage partnerships between teachers-in-training and elementary and secondary schools. He also wants to ensure that fewer teachers teach courses outside their expertise, he said.

It is difficult to escape the need to measure achievement, he said. Parents, students and teachers have to be able to figure out whether what they are doing is working, but the most Washington can do is to encourage the states to adopt rigorous standards, he said.