Education:The Truth

Myths About U.S. Students

Taking issue with data released last year by the U.S. Department of Education, The Washington Post refuted five myths about how American students are really performing on the international circuit:

Myth #1: U.S. students rate poorly compared to students in the rest of the world.
Truth: This is only the case if you pick and choose the results. In subjects like math and science, U.S. students per­formed in the middle of the pack - not great, but hardly a crisis. By the same token, no country scored higher than the United States in civics. And in reading, American students outper­formed 87 percent of the stu­dents in other industrialized nations.

Myth #2: U.S. students are falling behind.
Truth: As the "Trends in International Mathematics and Science Studies" (TTMSS) shows, American eighth graders actually boosted their scores in math and science in 1995, 1999, and 2003, despite an increasing, percentage of diverse learners. Nevertheless, focus is often placed on where American students rank instead of on their improvement. This makes it seem that other countries are doing better.

Myth #3: U.S. students will be ill-prepared for the 21st century work­force. This myth is part of the never-ending notion that U.S. schools are in crisis.
Truth: This concern has been around since the turn of the 19th century when business leaders blamed schools when workers weren't adequately prepared. What's more, in the 20th century, head­lines such as "Crisis in Education" and A Nation at Risk caused people to wonder whether America could possibly have a single citizen capable of producing or inventing a thing.

Myth #4: Bad schooling has under­mined America's competitiveness. Truth: Last year the World Economic Forum dropped the United States from first to sixth place in its survey of interna­tional economies. This decline had nothing to do with school performance but rather with trade deficits, a low savings rate, tax cuts, and the federal government's increased spending on defense and homeland security.

Myth #5: How we stack up on international tests matters, if only for national pride.
Truth: Indeed, we are a nation of achievers and take pride in being number one. But if being first in education is our goal, shouldn't we also want to be first in other things linked closely to academic achievement, such as providing quality health care to every child, trimming the obesity problem, or wiping out homeless-ness? Making the quality of life better for all children is the target, no matter whether the United States is first on the SATs or not.

Source: The Washington Post