Governors Seek to Hike Math Standards in U.S.

With a prod from big business, the governors of 10 states have agreed to develop math standards and tests for middle school students in an effort to lift the lagging performance of U.S. schools closer to international standards.

The $2-million program was announced Wednesday by Louis V. Gerstner Jr., chairman of IBM Corp., and Wisconsin Gov. Tommy G. Thompson. They are co-chairmen of Achieve Inc., a 3-year-old consortium of state and corporate officials.

The participating states are Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin.

Researchers found that students in top-performing nations are expected to learn such advanced math concepts as algebra and geometry at earlier grade levels than U.S. students.

Foreign students, who outperformed U.S. students at the eighth- and 12th-grade levels in math, also concentrate on fewer but more advanced topics. Students in the United States tend to pack in many more lessons, much of it being simple computations and work with fractions.

“There is no clear sense in this country of what sixth- through eighth-grade math should be other than the basic repetition of the first four or five years of school,” said William H. Schmidt, a researcher who compares student test scores globally.

The international report, Third International Mathematics and Science Study, drew wide attention last year when it showed that American high school seniors ranked near the bottom among the 21 nations that participated. The U.S. eighth-graders scored at the international average in math and below average in science.

The math partnership, funded by the group, will give teachers training and lesson material to prepare students for the new test it will develop. The test will focus on two-dimensional geometry, proportions, exponents and other skills and content that prepare students for algebra and other high school courses.

The group on Wednesday stopped short of calling for national testing, a Clinton administration proposal many state officials oppose.