Is the United States Really Losing the International Horse Race in Academic Achievement?

The results of international assessments of student achievement are far more nuanced than the headlines lead us to believe. Having examined six comparisons of performance — in various subjects and at various levels — by students in the U.S. and other industrialized nations, Mr. Boe and Ms. Shin conclude that the dire pronouncements about America’s standing are greatly exaggerated

Is the United States Winning or Losing the International Horse Race in Academic Achievement? Neither—It is Running With Other Western G7 Nations

It is widely believed and lamented that students from the US perform poorly in international comparisons of academic achievement. Such perceptions have led to grave concerns about the future economic competitiveness of the US internationally. These concerns have been based on a generation of older international surveys on mathematics and science achievement. Fortunately, a recent generation of high quality international achievement surveys has been completed since 1990 on a wider array of subjects—reading, mathematics, science, and civics. Accordingly, the purpose of this report is to assemble and organize the results of all major international achievement surveys re-ported since 1990 in order to determine how well US students have performed in comparison with their peers from 21 other industrialized nations. Upon aggregating the standing of US achievement scores across subject matters and grade levels, the results indicated that US students score somewhat higher than their peers in other industrialized nations, with only 24% of national scores being significantly higher than the US and 35% being significantly lower. Therefore, US students generally perform above average in international comparisons instead of poorly. The exception was mathematics, a subject in which US students score somewhat below average. It was also found that US students performed above aver-age at the elementary grade level, and average at the middle and secondary levels. More detailed comparisons of achievement scores were made with the major economic competitors of the US—the G7 nations. At the middle and secondary grade levels (the levels at which the US is least competitive), US scores are comparable to those of other Western G7 nations in reading, mathematics, and science, and considerably higher in civics. Scores of Japanese students in reading are comparable to Western G7 nations and the US, but much higher in mathematics and science. With respect to academic achievement, the US is quite comparable to other major Western nations, whereas the Western G7 nations consistently trail Japan in mathematics and science. Because of the well-known achievement gap in the US between White and minority students, scores were further analyzed by race/ethnicity (White, Black, and Hispanic). US achievement scores for the majority White students were consistently greater than those of the other five Western G7 nations, even though these nations were pre-dominantly White. By comparison, the scores for US Black and Hispanic students were very low and well below other scores. This is compelling evidence that the low scores of two minority groups were major factors in reducing the comparative standing of the US in international achievement surveys. That is, if these minority students per-formed at the level of US White students, the US would lead all G7 nations (including Japan) in reading and would lead Western G7 nations in mathematics and science, while still trailing Japan in mathematics. We conclude that US students have generally performed above average in comparisons with industrialized nations instead of poorly as widely perceived. The misconception of poor US performance may be due to several reasons—inadequate information, unreasonable expectations that the US should be first-in-the-world, biased report-ing, and/or misleading comparisons of the US (a large multi-state nation) with small and homogeneous nations such as Finland and Ireland. In this respect, we compared TIMSS-linked science scores of 40 US states with TIMSS science scores of 22 European nations (eighth grade level). The mean and variability of US science scores was very similar to that of scores from the European nations

The Chronic and Increasing Shortage of Fully Certified Teachers in Special and General Education

This study addresses the chronic and increasing national shortage of fully certified special education teachers (SETs) in comparison with general education teachers (GETs). The data sources were the 1987–1988 through 1999–2000 Schools and Staffing Surveys and the Data Analysis System for special education for school years 1987–1988 through 2001–2002. The study found that (a) the shortage of fully certified SETs increased from 7.4% in 1993–1994 to 12.2% in 2001–2002 (2%–4% greater than the shortage of fully certified GETs), (b) the number of additional fully certified SETs needed almost doubled from 25,000 in 1993–1994 to 49,000 in 2001–2002, (c) the shortage of fully certified teachers was exacerbated by entering teachers (only 44.4% of entering SETs were fully certified), and (d) only 53.1% of first-time entering SETs with extensive teacher preparation were fully certified

From Policy to Practice: Implementation of the Legislative Objectives of Charter Schools

Key legislative objectives of charter schools are to provide more school and classroom options, increase teacher influence over decision making, and increase school autonomy from state and district policy. Using national data from the 2003–4 School and Staffing Survey, we found that charter schools attained these legislative objectives when compared with regular schools, although increases in teacher influence and school autonomy were modest. Although charter schools have been implemented much as intended by legislation, other research has shown that charter schools in general have not improved student achievement—a major objective of charter school legislation. Our results suggest that this cannot be attributed to a failure to implement the charter school concept with respect to the legislative objectives examined

Student Task Persistence in the Third International Mathematics and Science Study: A Major Source of Achievement Differences at the National, Classroom, and Student Levels

Since the release of results from the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) in 1996, scholars have recognized that the central importance of TIMSS lies in its contribution to a better understanding of factors that are responsible for cross-national differences in average student achievement. Among many such factors may be differences in student ability and motivation to perform the task of completing the TIMSS achievement tests in math and science. In fact, national differences in math and science achievement scores may be determined more by differences in student test-taking ability and motivation than by . differences in student knowledge of math and science content. This possibility is explored in the research reported here

The Ecological Fallacy in Comparative and International Education Research: Discovering More From TIMSS Through Multilevel Modeling

The ecological fallacy is the assumption that empirical relationships observed at the group level generalize to individuals within the groups, and vice versa, without empirical evidence supporting this assumption. When international data are analyzed, relationships can be uncovered not only at the student or school-levels, but also at the national-level. And the factors that explain differences between nations do not necessarily provide any information about the relationships between schools or students within those nations, or vice versa. Using data from TIMSS, several examples illustrating this point are presented, and the implications for comparative education research are discussed

Predictors of National Differences in Mathematics and Science Achievement: Data From TIMSS for Eighth Grade Students

There is widespread belief that national economic productivity is related to student performance in mathematics and science. With the advent in the 1960s of international surveys of student achievement in math and science, cross-national comparisons have become possible and nations have aspired to become world class in this respect. A major national policy issue in the U.S. and elsewhere is to identify and implement actions to attain and maintain a high level of student achievement in math and science in international comparisons. The math and science project reported here was designed to capitalize on the potential for cross-national research with the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). TIMSS demonstrated that there are wide differences among nations in average student knowledge of math and science at several grade levels. Accordingly, a major research problem is to explain the sources of these national differences; that is, to identify the national-level variables that are the strongest predictors of national differences in average achievement scores. This problem was investigated to generate new research-based knowledge relevant to policy making about math and science education

Variability in Demand for Special Education Teachers: Indicators, Explanations, and Impacts

After decades of growth, the number of special education teachers (SETs) has begun to decline. In 2009, U.S. schools employed 13% fewer SETs than in 2006. The number of annual new hires of SETs also dropped dramatically in some states. The onset of these declines predated the economic downturn of 2008 and resulted in part from a steady decline since 2005 in the number of students with disabilities (SWD) served. We consider factors that may be contributing to declining demand for SETs, among them the number of SWD, service delivery, the economic downturn, and present supporting evidence. We also consider the potential impact of reduced demand on SET supply, teacher education, equitable distribution of teachers, and, most importantly, outcomes for SWD. We call for vigilance and monitoring of SET employment data to assure that all students receive the appropriate education to which they are entitled

The Role of Student Attitudes and Beliefs About Mathematics and Science Learning in Academic Achievement: Evidence From TIMSS for Six Nations

In view of the prevalent belief among parents, educators, and policy makers that positive student attitudes and beliefs about mathematics learning are associated with higher academic achievement, Turner and Boe (1999) recently examined this association using data from the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) for seventh- and eighth-grade students in the United States. In light of the substantial support found by Turner and Boe for such attitude-achievement relationships under statistically controlled conditions, the research reported here was designed to expand upon the prior study by quantifying the strength of these relationships in both mathematics and science and to extend the analysis to other nations. To examine cross-national similarities and differences in attitude-achievement relationships, Singapore, Korea, and Hong Kong (representing the Peoples\u27 Republic of China 1) were selected from the East, and Switzer­land, Germany, and the United States were selected from the West