US Dept of Ed says No to Global Math, Science Testing

Lawyers are taught one important rule- never ask a witness a question on the stand unless you already know the answer.  Could this be why the Department of Education has decided to sit this one out instead of having a sample of USA advanced Math and Science students take the 2008 Advanced version of the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study.  This news is reported in the September 28 2007 edition of the journal Science.

The last time the USA participated in this assessment of the advanced students in Math and Science was in 2005 and we were not very impressive compared with advanced students in 16 other countries.  We were dead last in physics then and only better that Austria in math.

The National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES) says we can't participate in the study because of the price tag- an exorbitant $10 million dollars at the most.  That would fund a whole hour and 21 minutes of the war in Iraq.  Others, including the US mathematical community, believe it is just as likely that this international comparison will point out that we are leaving some of our children behind.  Most specifically, we are leaving behind the very gifted students who need challenging and advanced curriculum.  

"It's inconceivable to me that the government wouldn't fund our participation, " says Stanford mathematician R. James Milgram, a member of the IES advisory board that expects to take up the issue at its 30-31 October meeting.  "The 1995 test was extremely important in showing that a problem exists," he notes.  "And the only way to know if we are beginning to turn things around is by looking at new data to see if we've made any progress."

link to firewalled article  Milgram is a member of the National Board of Education Sciences, so  hopefully he will advocate strongly for US participation in this sort of assessment.  

The NCES says that we are using some other international comparisons for 4th and 8th graders as well as math and science assessment for 15 year olds.  Why collect data on the most advanced students?  Well, these are the students feeding into the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) disciplines.  These are the young people who are going to solve resource limitations, global warming, treat fogies like myself when we need to see the physician.  In short, we need well educated young people.  

The National Board for Education Sciences, a 15 member externally appointed advisory board, plans to ask for a reconsideration of this decision.  The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics and the American Mathematical Society are also upset by this decision.  However, if the USA is to participate, we will need to act quickly.

Michael Martin, co-director of the Boston College based Center that will manage the TIMMS-A assessment (yes, our testing folks are helping write the darn thing) says that the test will be administered next spring and results reported in 2009.  "We are sad that the United States won't be participating.  But at some point the ship must sail." link to firewalled article

This is a serious educational assessment test.  Many students are now taking AP Science and Math classes in High School.  These are the students we should be assessing with an international standardized test like this, to benchmark our progress as educators.