Education and the Economy: If We’re So Dumb, Why Are We So Rich?

By Anthony P. Carnevale

Once again a set of major international assessments shows American students lagging in international performance in mathematics and science. In math, the 2003 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, or TIMSS, ranked our 4th graders 14th out of 25 participating nations. We did better in science, outperforming 16 of the 24 other, mostly European and Asian, nations. The 2003 Program for International Student Assessment, or PISA, shows that about two-thirds of the other nations surveyed outperformed American students.

The PISA study is the latest in a steady drumbeat of reports on how American students aren’t measuring up globally. And it looks as though we aren’t gaining ground. Most disappointing in the 2003 TIMSS and PISA assessments, was that there was no real improvement since the tests were taken in the 1990s, despite our aggressive emphasis on standards-based reform and a huge increase in the share of students taking math, science, and other more rigorous courses. And it is not just K-12 education. Other indicators from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development show that we have slipped from No. 1 to No. 4 in postsecondary attainment.

Cause for concern? You bet. You don’t have to have the math scores of a rocket scientist to know that in the new high-tech economic world, math and science education is a key...