Fw: math, science, fear mongering

["GERALD BRACEY" <gbracey1@verizon.net>]

FWI, stay tuned.


----- Original Message ----- 
From: GERALD BRACEY 
To: gbracey1@verizon.net 
Sent: Sunday, January 07, 2007 3:10 PM
Subject: math, science, fear mongering


Dear Education Writer

The fear mongerers might be out again on January 8.  This time in the form of a program "Preparing U. S. Students for the Global Economy."  Before writing a story about this program, please give a few minutes to the words below from a recent article:

"From our study the main conclusion is that the relationship between achievement in science and mathematics in schoolchildren and national and economic growth is both time and case sensitive.  Moreover, the relationship largely reflects the gap between the bottom third of the countries and the rest; the middle of the pack does not much differ from the rest.   If there are economic consequences that a nation will face in the future due to its current achievement profile, it is the nations in the bottom third of the educational distribution that are at risk.  These are countries competing below a mnimum standard, not those competing at higher levels.  But much of the obsession with the achievement 'horse race' proceeds as if beathing the Asian Tigers in mathematics and science education is necessary for the economic well-being of other developed countries.  Our analysis offers little support for this obsession.

"High scores in standardized international mathematics and science achievement tests may be important indicators of the quality of schooling.  Educational reform to upgrade the quality of mathematics and science education in the United States makes good sense.  But achievement indicators do not capture the extrent to which school promotes initiative, creativity, entrepreneurship, and other strengths not sufficiently curricularized to warrant cross-national data collection and analysis.  Unfortunately the policy discourse that often follows from international achievement races involves exaggerated causal claims frequently stressing educational "silver bullets" for economic woes.  Our analyses do not offer definitive answers, but they raise important questions about the validity of these claims.  In an era that celebrates evidence-based policy formation, it behooves us to carefully weigh the evidence, rather than use it simplly as a rhetorical weapon.  

Francisco O. Ramirez et alia
Student Achievement and National Economic Growth
American Journal of Education
November 2006

Actually, Ramirez et al find that if you toss the Asian Tigers out of the analysis the impact of achievement on growth disappears.  Don't forget, while Japan's kids were acing tests in international comparisons, the nation experienced 15 years of recession or stagnation.

Gerald W. Bracey
Alexandria, VA
703-317-1716