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TIMSS-R
It found that most nations tend to employ math teachers
certified in math. On average, 71 percent of students internationally learned math from
teachers who majored in mathematics in college, but only 41 percent of American students
did.
This is clearly a huge problem. In fact, it is a drop dead
problem. But the even bigger problem is something that teachers across the country
are in denial about, that many parents refuse to even discuss, which even students
themselves don't understand and/or characterize as nothing but "misogyny", and
which will get you thrown out of any forum in the country for merely mentioning:
Three quarters of American teachers are women, whereas
three quarters of the teachers in the highest scoring countries are men.
Why is this important? The international tests themselves
show that women education majors in the US don't understand math as well as their own
students. The gap is several hundred points. Any parent who has met with a
woman math teacher and wondered how that teacher could teach their son math when the
teacher doesn't understand (nor even appreciate) math, must be as confused and frustrated
as I've been. Why pay teachers to do something they have PROVEN in spades that they
can't do. There is no guesswork required here. This scientific study made
sure that we already know that our women teachers don't understand and cannot teach
math. Not a shred of evidence disputes the conclusions of TIMSS. Every other
test shows exactly the same pattern.
As long as Americans continue to insist that it's
"misogyny" to even discuss the problem, our scores will continue to plummet, and
no amount of money will stop that process. It's the sheer definition of insanity to
continue down the same path when we know that in the last 4 decades, the more money we
spent for education, the worse test scores got. We have clearly gone beyond the
point of no return. The existing system cannot be fixed, particularly with all of
the educators in the country who are in this chronic state of denial about the poor
quality of our teachers. The only choice now is to ban public education.
Multiple studies show that:
If we KNOW that a woman's involvement in education cuts education
quality by a third and that a man's involvement doubles education quality, then we KNOW
why having mostly women teachers has produced the miserable education system we now
lament. How bad is that education system? At the 8th grade level, the same
countries which scored much higher than the US in 1995 also scored much higher in 1999 http://nces.ed.gov/timss/timss-r/figure_1.html
By refusing to even discuss the problem with the quality of American
teachers, much less to correct it, we guaranteed that we would make no progress in
education during this four years in spite of all the political rhetoric to the contrary.
46% of Singapore's 8th graders and 41% of Taiwan's scored higher than the top ten
percent, compared to only 9% of ours and this will be the case a century from now if we
don't wake up to reality.
But this is only the good news. Things get worse at the 12th
grade level. Much worse. Whereas most countries' 12th graders score higher than or
equal to their 8th graders, ours score lower timss4th12th.htm
Our 12th graders score even lower than our 4th graders. What is difficult to
discern from the NCES web site is just HOW much worse. A more detailed look at the
1995 data shows a very disturbing pattern which NCES is clearly bent on concealing.
In other words, there is no doubt that these "educators" know the problem but
are politically motivated to conceal it, at all costs, including the continued decline of
US education quality.
For example, it is difficult to discover from the NCES web site
that at the 8th grade level, Cyprus scored 26 points lower than the US, but that at the
12th grade level, they scored 81 points higher in Geometry, 109 points higher in calculus,
and 70 points higher in physics. Their students improved considerably in high school
while ours not only failed to improve, but actually dropped an average of 78 points timsssummary.htm
You would also not know that most of the math teachers in Cyprus are men while 80%
of ours are women.
Another example is Lithuania who scored 20 points lower than the
US at the 8th grade level but at the 12th grade level they scored 100 points higher in
geometry, 85 points higher in advanced math, 58 points higher in calculus, and 20 points
higher in general math.
A third example is Italy whose 8th graders scored 23 points lower
than ours but whose 12th graders scored 60 points higher in calculus, 46 points higher in
geometry, 27 points higher in advanced math, and 25 points higher in general math.
Two thirds of Italy's teachers are men.
Of the 12th graders who participated in TIMSS in 1995, our 12th
graders were dead last in advanced math, dead last in general physics, dead last in
mechanics, dead last in electricity and magnetism, dead last in heat, dead last in
geometry, dead last in numbers and equations, dead last in calculus, dead last in
geometry, dead last in advanced math, dead last in wave phenomena, and dead last in modern
physics. Only Cyprus and South Africa scored lower in general math, and only Cyprus,
Hungary, Lithuania, and South Africa scored lower in general science timsstables.htm
To insist that we continue this experiment in education, wherein
women can "prove" that they can teach boy students who have proven to understand
math better than their own teachers, is not only the definition of insanity--it is
destroying the culture and the economy.
Of the 27 countries which scored higher than us in 1995, 15
of them took the test in 1999 and also scored higher than us, 2 of them (England and
Thailand) scored higher in 1995 but lower in 1999, Latvia who scored lower in 1995 changed
positions and scored 3 points higher than us in 1999, and two new countries which didn't
take the test in 1995 scored higher than us in 1999 (Malaysia by 17 points and Taiwan by
83 points).
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/06/national/06EXAM.html?pagewanted=all
December 6, 2000
Worldwide Survey Finds U.S. Students Are Not Keeping Up
By DIANA JEAN SCHEMO
<http://graphics.nytimes.com/images/misc/clear.gif> Forum
• Join a Discussion on Standardized Testing
[W] ASHINGTON, Dec. 5 — Four years after American fourth-grade students scored high
on an international test of science and math, their performance declined markedly when
they reached the eighth grade, a second survey shows.
The survey results, released here today, indicate that the changes some educators had
suggested were responsible for the fourth graders' success were insufficient to produce
results as they advanced in school.
The survey was based on the results of tests that 180,000 eighth- graders in 38 nations
took last year. It showed American students, over all, performing worse in math and
science than students in Singapore, Taiwan, Russia, Canada, Finland, Hungary, the
Netherlands and Australia. They did better than students in some less industrialized
nations, including Iran, Jordan, Chile, Indonesia, Macedonia and South Africa.
"American children continue to learn, but their peers in other countries are learning
at a higher rate," said Richard W. Riley, the outgoing secretary of education.
Mr. Riley said that data showing American youngsters doing slightly better than the
international average in math and science was cause for optimism, but acknowledged,
"We need to work harder and better."
The report, known as the Third International Math and Science Study-Repeat, came as a
letdown to a number of educators.
It confirmed the declines over time in student performances that the initial 1995 survey
of students in the United States and 42 other nations indicated.
That study showed American fourth-grade students among the leaders in science and at the
international average in math. In the eighth grade, though, American students hovered at
less than the international average in math and at the average in science. And in the
twelfth grade, they lagged far behind students in most other nations in both subjects.
In the follow-up study, which took place in 1999, the only American group that showed
improvement since the 1995 survey were black students, whose achievement rose in math, but
not science. White students did better than black or Hispanic Americans on both science
and math, while boys did better than girls in science, but not in math.
In agreeing to repeat the test — but examining only the most promising age group
— American educators had hoped to find that the students who fared well in 1995 as
fourth graders would continue to do so as eighth graders. That did not happen.
The reforms on which their hopes hinged, many undertaken during the last decade, included
the efforts of school districts to bring uniformity and coherence to science and math
curriculums, which vary widely with each district, and to raise standards.
Other reforms included programs by the National Science Foundation to reinvigorate science
and math teaching in part by drawing working scientists into classrooms.
But the report said that such efforts, while perhaps improving achievement in isolated
school districts, may have had little effect on an entire nation's performance.
Rita Colwell, director of the National Science Foundation, which is conducting several
pilot projects to determine the best methods to improve the teaching of science, math and
engineering, said she found the results "a little depressing."
"You would like to see the U.S. a leader not just in research and Nobel prizes, but
in how our little kids perform," she said.
The international test, which was administered to 9,000 United States eighth-graders,
resembled standardized tests taken nationally, asking a combination of multiple choice and
open-ended questions.
In math, the questions covered five areas: fractions and number sense; measurement; data
analysis; geometry; and algebra.
Science questions involved earth science and life science; physics; chemistry;
environmental and resource issues; and scientific inquiry.
In 1995, American fourth-grade students did better than the international average on the
science exam. Of the nations participating in both the 1995 and 1999 exams, American
scores were exceeded only by those of South Korea and Japan.
But the results from 1999 showed that by the eighth grade, American students fell below
the international average in science, with students in Australia, the Czech Republic,
Britain, Slovenia, Canada and Hungary and five other nations doing better.
In math, American fourth graders in 1995 outperformed students in Canada, Britain and
Cyprus, among others. But by the eighth grade, the report showed, they were on a level
with students in Latvia, while those in Canada and Australia advanced.
Several industrialized nations that took part in the 1995 study — including
Switzerland, France, Austria and Germany — did not participate this time. New nations
joining the study included Taiwan, which scored well, and nearly a dozen low-scoring
nations, including Tunisia, Moldova, Turkey, Thailand, Chile, Malaysia and Indonesia.
International comparisons have often come under fire, with critics arguing that other
countries divide students at an early age into academic and nonacademic tracks, so that
only their top-ranked students ever get to take international exams.
But Michael O. Martin, a professor at Boston College who helped design and organize this
year's study, said such tracking decisions typically occur after the eighth grade. His
group had tried to assure that a representative sample of students in each country took
last year's test, he said.
In addition to its ranking of nations, the study also offered what Gary W. Phillips, the
acting United States commissioner of education statistics, termed "a treasure chest
of information" on what teachers teach and students learn in the 38 participating
nations.
It found that most nations tend to employ math teachers certified in math. On average, 71
percent of students internationally learned math from teachers who majored in mathematics
in college, but only 41 percent of American students did.
Nations with higher rankings teach subjects like geometry, chemistry and physics before
high school, giving students more time to absorb the concepts, said William H. Schmidt,
executive director of the Third International Math and Science Study Research Center at
Michigan State University.
"As they get to high school, students in those countries can get much more
challenging mathematics or science," he said. Only 25 percent of American high school
students, he added, ever take physics.
The study showed that teachers in nations whose students scored higher in math and science
tended to spend more time on professional development and refining curriculums.
Lee Stiff, president of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, noted that while
specialized degrees are more common among high school teachers, middle schools tend to
prefer — or often require — teachers to have general education degrees, since
that gives administrators flexibility in assigning teachers to a greater variety of
classrooms.
He said that teachers in the United States, Japan and China were eager for training and
professional development, "but the other countries leave more time for development
and class preparation during the school day. To have the dramatic gains we'd like, we have
to do something dramatic in terms of what it means to be a teacher in America."
Carol Stoel, director of Schools Around the World, which links teachers in different
nations to improve teacher and student performance, called for "greater emphasis on
serious work at the middle-school level."
"Teachers in middle schools are committed, but they need lots of help in content
matter," she said.
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