Clinton to Convene Math, Science Panel

Distressed over the “unacceptable” performance of Americans’ older schoolchildren in math and science, President Clinton has decided to call together a select, bipartisan group of governors, mayors and education experts to confront the problem, White House officials said Saturday.

“He wants to challenge business, political and educational leaders to do absolutely everything we can to start reversing the trend in math and science,” said Bruce Reed, Clinton’s senior domestic policy advisor.

The meeting, which is scheduled for March 16, would serve as a clearinghouse for information and an opportunity to brainstorm on solutions. By bringing 20 influential people to the White House to talk about the problem, the president also hopes to force the country to focus on the poor performance of America’s eighth- and 12th-graders in the Third International Mathematics and Science study.

The president decided to hold the session because he was so bothered by the recently released results of the 21-nation study, in which U.S. 12th-graders ranked 19th in math, outperforming only Cyprus and South Africa. In the category of general science knowledge, U.S. high school seniors ranked 16th.

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“The president considers the test results unacceptable, and unless they turn around, they’ll be a harbinger of future economic performance,” senior advisor Rahm Emanuel said.

“What was especially troubling to the president about the TIMS results was the lack of an outcry over them,” Reed added.

Advisors to the president said he was so upset by the scores that he frequently cited them in meetings with his staff. The plan to bring together a wide assortment of elected officials, education specialists and business leaders arose as a way to counteract the trend.

Building momentum behind a nationwide effort to improve math and science education is particularly important for the president, who wants a better-educated population to be one of the major legacies of his presidency. The president believes that if the country is to remain economically competitive, all Americans need access to a first-class education.

Clinton also hopes to use the forum to press for support of his education agenda, which he feels is an important blueprint for improving American education and helping all children perform to high standards.

Although the list of participants has not been finalized, it already includes Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, a Democrat; Diane Ravitch, former deputy secretary of Education under President Bush; and the leaders of the two major teachers’ unions. Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan was invited but said he has a conflict, White House officials said.

The group will discuss how to improve teaching in math and science.

“There are lots of good things going on in American education, but not enough and not in enough places,” Reed said.

In a meeting with reporters and editors at The Times’ Washington bureau last week, Education Secretary Richard W. Riley said one of the biggest weaknesses in the U.S. education system is that schools try to cover too much ground each year. He also cited too much time spent teaching increasingly difficult arithmetic problems instead of moving children on to geometry, algebra and calculus.

An interesting aspect of the study’s results is that American fourth-graders scored at the top, but in the eighth and 12th grades, their performance dropped in relation to their foreign counterparts.

White House officials said Clinton does not plan a major new federal initiative to improve performance of American teens in math and science but instead will try to stimulate states and localities to address the problem.

Nonetheless, White House officials said they believe the president’s previously announced education initiatives would push the country in the right direction.

Those initiatives, none of which has been passed by Congress, include:

* a $22-billion bond initiative to repair and build schools;

* a $12-billion block grant for states to decrease class sizes;

* $1 billion for after-school programs to keep kids off the streets.