Getting to No. 1

As any informed student of the recent history of American education knows, there has been genuine national concern--albeit intermittent--about the level of student achievement in mathematics at least since Sputnik was launched in October 1957. But 40 years have come and gone, and there is little to show for it in terms of concrete improvement. While the percentage of those graduating from high school has increased, when compared with similar graduates from schools in other highly developed parts of the world our American high school graduates rarely distinguish themselves.

As recently as 1994, the federal law known as Goals 2000 defined the expectation that Americans would be "No. 1 in mathematics and science by the year 2000." But the recent Third International Mathematics and Science Study, conducted under the most carefully planned and executed assessment of international achievement, painted a very different picture for the 13-year-olds tested. Forty-one countries participated in the study. American students did better than average on probability and statistics; average in fractions, number sense, and algebra; and below average in geometry, proportions, and measurement. Only 5 percent scored in the top 10 percent in mathematics; 40 percent of the Singapore students were in the top 10 percent. ( "U.S. Students About Average in Global Study," Nov. 27, 1996.)

The results would seem to disprove the contentions of some educators that the educational crisis is "manufactured." The international math and science study's administrators were most careful to compare students of comparable ability. The tests employed both multiple-choice items and open-ended, free-response essays. Moreover, the content of mathematics enjoys greater consensus across national boundaries than other comparable disciplines. There is consequently little reason to...