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[What Is Benchmarking?] The Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) is the largest international education study ever undertaken with data from one-half million students in 41 nations. Conducted in 1995?96 under the auspices of the International Association for the Evaluation of Education Achievement (IEA), it is also one of the most rigorous and comprehensive international studies.
TIMSS compares the mathematics and science achievement of students midway through elementary school, midway through lower secondary school, and at the end of upper secondary school. In the United States, we tested over 33,000 students in more than 500 schools in the 4th, 8th, and 12th grades. As well as content assessments, there were curriculum analyses, teacher surveys, and a video study of teaching in three countries.
TIMSS offers significant findings in three key areas: student achievement, curriculum, and teaching.
Student Achievement. American school children were the only students with above average scores in 4th grade to lose ground in the 8th by testing average, and then to do worse again in the 12th. By the time our students had moved through our education system they were among the lowest scoring students in the study.
The 4th-grade achievement of American students is quite high. Our students are near the top in both mathematics and science. Of the 25 participating countries, our 4th-graders were outperformed in science only by Korea; showed no significant difference with 5 other countries; and outperformed 19 other countries. In mathematics, our 4th-graders were outperformed by 7 countries; 6 countries were not significantly different; and our students did better than 12 nations.
In middle school (8th grade in the United States), 41 countries participated. While our students were above the international average in science, they were below the international average in mathematics. American students were outperformed in science by 9 nations; performed similarly to 17 nations; and outperformed 15 nations. Twenty nations outperformed American students in 8th-grade mathematics; 14 performed at the same level; and 7 nations fell below our students.
In a pattern similar to 4th and 8th grade, the United States' 12th-grade international standing in science is higher than in mathematics. However, both U.S. science and mathematics performances are below the international average and among the lowest of the 21 TIMSS countries. In science, students in 11 countries outperformed American students; students in 7 countries performed similarly to American students; and American students outperformed students in only 2 countries. In mathematics, American 12th-graders performed below the international average and among the lowest of the 21 TIMSS countries. American students were outperformed by 14 countries; were not different than 4 countries; and outperformed students in 2 countries. Even our best mathematics and science students did not fare well in comparison with the best mathematics and science students from other countries.
Curriculum. There are no required national curriculum standards in the United States. Curriculum standards are developed and maintained at various levels of government—local, state, and national. The TIMSS curriculum studies were conducted by researchers at Michigan State University. It appears that U.S. mathematics and science curricula lack the coherence, focus, and rigor of the curricula taught in other countries that participated in TIMSS. Most state curriculum frameworks emphasize breadth over depth.
Mathematics and science textbooks in the United States were found to be substantially longer than the international average and to express the incoherence, fragmentation, and lack of rigor noted in the U.S. curriculum.[1]
Teaching. The 8th--grade mathematics videotape classroom study conducted in the United States, Germany, and Japan found American and German lessons, unlike Japanese lessons, to focus primarily on the acquisition and application of skills rather than problem solving and thinking. When mathematical concepts are addressed, three--fourths of Japanese and German teachers developed the concepts after introducing them compared to less than one--fifth of American teachers. American teachers tend only to state rather than develop concepts. There was less cohesion in American versus Japanese lessons. The average grade level of 8th--grade mathematics taught in the United States was 7.4 versus 8.7 in Germany and 9.1 in Japan. While 62 percent of Japanese and 21 percent of German 8th-grade mathematics lessons included deductive reasoning, no American lessons did.
Lesson plans from each country (with national origin disguised) were judged by an independent group of American college mathematics teachers. Eighty-nine percent of American lessons were found to be of low quality and none were judged to be of high quality. In comparison, 11 percent of Japanese lessons and 34 percent of German lessons were found to be of low quality, and 39 percent of Japanese lessons and 28 percent of German lessons were judged to be of high quality.
Obviously, we have much work to do to improve student achievement in the upper grades. We do give our students a good start, but we must urgently ask ourselves why U.S. students lose the lead as they are presented more complex mathematics and science content after grade four. We cannot afford to be complacent about our curriculum and teaching practices. The TIMSS data warn that our benchmarks in these areas need to be much higher. Reformers who choose to use the information available in TIMSS for benchmarking toward higher standards have an unprecedented opportunity to improve American mathematics and science education.
—Douglas Cochrane, Education Statistics Services Institute
Editor's Note: TIMSS was initiated and funded primarily by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), with supplementary support for international coordination from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Canadian Government.
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