US Education

George Washington said “To encourage literature and the arts is a duty which every good citizen owes to his country.” I’m going to expand on this as literature and the arts have been cut over and over again by Republicans and Romney’s plan for education goes further than this in taking education from our country.

A Washington Post February 11, 2011 article said Newsweek reported in September "US students who once led the world, currently rank 21st in the world in science and 25th in math". In the latest annual report on American Education by the Brookings Institution, Tom Loveless, a former teacher currently with the Brown Center on Education Policy, said "The US never led the world. It was never number one and has never been close to number one on international math tests or on science tests for that matter. It is more accurate to say that the US has always trailed the world on math tests. There was no sharp decline--in either the short or long run. The US performance on the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) has been flat to slightly up since the test's inception and it has improved on TIMSS (the Third International Mathematics and Science Study) since 1995." Loveless, a leading expert on PISA and TIMSS is part of the specialists who advise those programs; his report says the first international test comparable to those 2 was the First International Math Study in 1964; it assessed 13-year olds in 12 countries-the US placed #11; other age groups were tested with similar disappointing results. The December PISA and latest TIMSS tests the US did better; scoring in the middle of the pack; an analysis of PISA results by a Stanford University economist showed the US was up 5 points in reading, 13 points in math and 13 points in science. Loveless said - If we maintain that pace we will boost the US gross domestic product by at least $41 trillion in the next 20 years. The Post updated its article on July 2, 2012 and said-In 1965 the International Educational Achievement (IEA) study of mathematical achievement in 12 countries asked students to solve 70 problems; the top scoring country was Israel (a mean score of 36.4 correct items) and US students placed last with a score of 13.8. During the 1981-82 school year the IEA assessed 12^th grade students on 6 topics: number systems, sets and relations, algebra, geometry, elementary functions and calculus, and probability and statistics and the US ranked last among advanced industrial countries. The authors said “at the 12th grade level, the US curriculum is much more like that of early years of secondary school elsewhere while the curriculum of most other countries is more like that of beginning college level.” In 1989 a dozen countries and Canadian provinces participated in a mathematics assessment conducted by the Educational Testing Service and the US ranked last. An international study in the 1990s tested 13-year olds in mathematics in 15 countries; the US placed next to last. The results of science assessments of high school students in 1973 placed the US 14 out of 14; in the mid-1980s the US in biology was 13 out of 13; in chemistry 11 out of 13 and in physics 9 out of 13 countries. In 1991 the US in science was 13 out of 15. US students at no time were #1. In my opinion, if Loveless is correct it would be wise for the US to invest in education as the President has said.