At the recent ExcelinEd national summit in Atlanta, K-8 math policy expert Christy Hovanetz tried to talk with policymakers about addressing declines in U.S. math performance. She didn’t get much traction.
A former assistant education commissioner in Florida and Minnesota, Hovanetz said she was met with a common refrain: “We need to figure this reading thing out first.”
States are intent on improving literacy. That includes Georgia, where multiple initiatives are underway to improve reading and millions are going to retrain teachers in phonics-based instruction. But math is emerging from the shadows after score plunges on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP, and the Program for International Student Assessment, better known as PISA.
Released in June, NAEP scores showed middle school math in free fall. The disappointing news continued this month when PISA results revealed a mere 7% of American teens capable of math at advanced levels. PISA is an international benchmarking test given to students in 81 nations.
In explaining why America lags peer nations, Andreas Schleicher, the director for education and skills for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which administers PISA, cited a range of reasons in a recent media presentation.
“Usually, the expectations for students are significantly higher. The mathematics curriculum is much more rigorous. It is typically more focused. They teach fewer things at greater depth,” said Schleicher, a German mathematician, statistician and researcher. “It is not just about remembering formulas and equations, but how students might think and reason like mathematicians.”
The slide in math competency augurs poorly for the U.S. economy, said Stanford economist Eric Hanushek. “Economic growth, which is what determines the future well-being of countries, is directly related to the quality of the labor force in every country. The measures of PISA turn out to be pretty good measures of what the quality of the labor force will be in our modern, information-based economy,” he said during a recent ExcelinED webinar on shoring up math skills.
The decline comes at a time when math skills are increasingly tied to career prospects. Eight in 10 jobs over the next decade will require skills in the STEM disciplines of science, technology, engineering and math.
The performance plummets in NAEP and PISA signal that America could see the loss of “future doctors, engineers, computer scientists — people we need to keep the country moving,” said Denise Forte, president and CEO of the Education Trust.
Earlier in December, the Education Trust and Just Equations released a report, “Opportunities Denied: High-Achieving Black and Latino Students Lack Access to Advanced Math.” The report found high-performing Black, Latino and low-income students aren’t afforded equal access to advanced math classes despite displaying the aptitude for them.
And it matters to their futures. The Ed Trust report found students who had the opportunity to access higher-level math classes experienced positive academic outcomes, including higher grades and high school graduation rates and increased rates of enrolling in college.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics highlights the earnings payoff to STEM credentials. Engineers earned the highest median salaries with an average pay of $97,000, followed by $90,000 for computer scientists.
North Carolina is drawing interest for its strong post-pandemic gains in math. The state invested $103 million in competency-based math and reading assessments so teachers had the data to figure out where students were. It also spent $36 million on summer bridge programs that offered evidence-based, in-person enrichment programs for math for at-risk students.
“Our biggest jump coming out of the pandemic has been in middle grades math,” said Catherine Truitt, North Carolina superintendent of public instruction. When the North Carolina Legislature meets in the spring, Truitt plans to ask for an early math screener for all K-8 schools so teachers have valid and reliable data on which fundamental skills have been mastered, enabling tailored instruction.
Georgia doesn’t have a required statewide math screening assessment, but the state Department of Education is expanding its formative assessment tool BEACON, used now in math and language arts in grades 3 to 5, to K-2. Schools can choose to use BEACON to determine where students are in their learning and measure progress throughout the year.
Hovanetz said K-8 schools have two primary subjects they’re supposed to teach, reading and math. States have to get serious about raising performance in each of them so students have equitable college and career opportunities.
“Please don’t wait,” said Hovanetz. “You can do both at the same time.”
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