A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

On March 6, 1997, the President issued a memorandum (Appendix 1) directing the Secretary of Education and the Director of the National Science Foundation to form an interagency working group to develop an action strategy for using Federal resources to assist States and local school systems in preparing students to meet challenging mathematics standards in the eighth grade, and for involving the mathematical, scientific, and technical communities in support of those efforts.

The Presidential Directive

The Presidential directive specified that the action strategy include recommendations for the use of Federal resources to help States, local school districts, and schools improve teaching, upgrade curriculum, integrate technology and high-quality instructional materials into the classroom, and motivate students to help them understand how mathematical concepts are applied in today's global workplace. The directive called for the interagency group to review the status of improvements in mathematics education and identify critical needs, drawing on research and input from educators and professional organizations. In addition, it called for the working group to review how Federal resources and partnerships with other organizations can help improve student achievement in science.

The Need for Action

The Third International Mathematics and Science Study

The Third International Mathematics and Science Study TIMSS is the largest and most ambitious of a series of international comparative studies of educational achievement. The Department of Education and the National Science Foundation sponsored the U.S. testing, conducted in 1995 at grades 4, 8, and 12, and the subsequent analysis. TIMSS involved more than half a million students in 45 countries. 30,000 U.S. students took part. While the relative performance of U.S. students in comparison to students of other countries improved over performance on similar international comparisons of earlier years, there were signs of problems, particularly at grade 8. U.S. students performed above average at grade 4 and below average at grade 8 in mathematics, the only country with such a pattern in either science or mathematics. Grade 12 results will be announced shortly. While collecting achievement data in each participating country, TIMSS researchers also developed a wealth of information about teachers and teaching, about curricula and instructional materials, about classroom lessons and interactions, and about student attitudes and habits outside the classroom. For example, TIMSS results show that US student performance increases more slowly between elementary and middle school years than in most other countries; The U.S. curriculum is not as well focused on topics that would propel students toward more advanced levels of understanding as are curricula in other countries; U.S. teachers work longer hours, have less time during the day for preparing classes, and experience more disruption in their classrooms than do their counterparts in other countries. The TIMSS results have become a source of constructive motivation for mounting an action strategy, taking the issue well beyond the simple comparison of scores in international test taking.

Results of the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) make clear the need for action to improve mathematics and science education prior to eighth grade. Results of tests administered in 1995 to students in grades 4 and 8 are now available. The fourth grade results show U.S. students above the international average in both science and mathematics. In science, U.S. students were outperformed only by those in Korea. However, the eighth grade results show lackluster performance by U.S. students, with scores only a bit above the international average in science, and below the international average in mathematics. Results for the twelfth grade will be released shortly. They are expected to show even poorer performance than the eighth grade results.

TIMSS results for the fourth grade are much more positive than the results of similar international comparisons in the past. They demonstrate that our students are mastering the basics of arithmetic and introductory science, that it is possible to make significant progress in international comparisons over time, and that U.S. students can compete favorably with those of other nations in mathematics and science achievement in the early grades.

Our National Education Goals proclaim our dedication to making U.S. students first in the world in mathematics and science achievement by the year 2000. In the early grades, we are making demonstrable progress toward that goal. These results clearly indicate that mathematics and science education in the middle school years should be an important focus for national efforts to help ensure that our students meet world-class standards.

Opportunities for the Future

Eighth grade is a critical point in mathematics education. Achievement at that stage lays the foundation for students to take the advanced high school mathematics and science courses that are keys to college entrance and well-paid jobs. Today, most students enter high school able to perform the basics of arithmetic, but far too many have failed to develop a foundation in the 21st century basics of algebra, geometry, and data analysis and cannot cope with multi-step problems. Unfortunately, many never gain these abilities, closing doors to opportunities for the future. Often students and their families do not even know that the doors are closing, leading to a mismatch between their expectations for the future and their actions in the present. This is particularly true for students from disadvantaged backgrounds. It is a factor in perpetuating inequities both in participation in advanced education and in lifetime income.

The Importance of Rigorous Standards

In working toward the National Education Goals, States, districts, and national organizations have all supported the development of standards for benchmarking the performance of all students. The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM)

was one of the first national organizations to develop sets of standards for content, teaching, and assessment, and many States and districts have modeled their standards on these. The NCTM framework emphasizes the importance of mastering the basics of arithmetic as well as more advanced topics and using them effectively in addressing complex problems. The National Research Council developed a comparable framework for science standards. It suggests more treatment in depth of fewer topics, in line with the TIMSS recommendations.

State and local educational agencies have worked to develop standards and approaches suitable to their circumstances, drawing as they find appropriate on frameworks established by national organizations such as these. Teachers teach and students respond to the level of expectations placed upon them. Thus, standards that are benchmarked to national and international norms can be used to raise expectations for achievement.

Standards and Improved Performance Standards improve student performance when they are combined with state and local strategies for curriculum improvement, teacher development, and assessment. Seven years after a state judge ruled the school system "educationally bankrupted," Kentucky's comprehensive school reforms are generating substantial improvement in student performance. Since 1992, the percentage of elementary school students scoring in the "proficient" or "Distinguished" range in reading on the state's performance-based assessment has increased from 8 percent to 41 percent. The improvements are distributed across all grade levels, throughout every geographic region in the state, and in poor as well as wealthier communities. Tougher graduation requirements in New York City public schools spurred thousands more high school students to take and pass college preparatory mathematics and science courses. The new course requirements grew out of a collaboration between the Chancellor of Education, the City University of New York (CUNY), and the United Federation of Teachers to increase the number of well-prepared students entering CUNY. By agreeing on challenging standards for what all high school students should learn, and by phasing in course requirements and professional development for teachers, New York City produced the best-prepared and most diverse freshman class at CUNY in two decades.

Another source of input to deliberations on standards is found in the content of TIMSS and the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Managed by the independent National Assessment Governing Board, the content of the NAEP assessments reflects a collective judgment of State and local educational officials, content experts, and the community about what our children should know and be able to do in many fields. In mathematics and science, there is strong overlap between the NAEP framework and the NCTM and NRC standards, as well as State and local standards now being put in place.

A Voluntary National Test in Mathematics

The President has proposed a voluntary national test in mathematics, to be taken near the end of eighth grade, as a very visible part of an ambitious, sustained drive for higher, more challenging standards of learning for all students. The test will be based on the NAEP framework and managed, as is NAEP, by the independent, bipartisan National Assessment Governing Board. It will be available by the spring of 2001. Parents and teachers will receive the results for each student, with scores linked to national and international benchmarks. Every year, all items on the test, along with answers, scoring guides, and other materials, will be released so that teachers, parents, and students can review performance on individual test items and know what is expected from students in reaching standards of excellence. For more information, see Appendix 2.

The voluntary national test is only one element of the comprehensive effort needed to accomplish the objective of having all students achieve challenging national standards for performance. This effort will require many individuals -- students, parents, teachers, college faculty, employers, professional associations, and community leaders -- working in concert with a common understanding of what they want to see happen. The test, in combination with a national effort to boost achievement, will provide a powerful lever to amplify the effects of existing efforts at local, State, and national levels to improve student achievement in mathematics and science.

Plan of Action: Place Immediate Focus on Mathematics

The TIMSS results show the need for an immediate focus on mathematics education in grades 5-8, where the serious drop from above to below international norms in mathematics threatens achievement in both mathematics and science at higher grade levels. The President's proposed voluntary national test in mathematics in eighth grade provides a tool to measure progress and also challenges us to provide students with the mathematics in grades 5-8 that will enable them to perform well on it.

The action strategy targets grades 5-8, building on a strong foundation of activity underway across the country to improve elementary and secondary mathematics and science education. It anticipates that these activities continue, at all levels in both mathematics and science, and lays the groundwork in both substance and process for expanded activities in the future.

Raising Achievement for Disadvantaged Students Efforts to raise student achievement in mathematics and science must be particularly intensive in high-poverty communities and schools. The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in mathematics shows that students from poor families perform significantly less well than other students. In 1996, the average score on the 500 point NAEP scale was 252 for 8th graders who are eligible for free and reduced price lunch as compared to 280 for ineligible students. Students from poor families are also less likely to take algebra, geometry, and more advanced courses in high school. On July 25, 1997, fifteen urban school districts, including the nation's three largest, pledged to participate in the voluntary national test. They sent a clear signal that students in inner city schools can and should be held to the same challenging standards that are being set for all students throughout the nation. These communities recognize that setting high standards is a prerequisite for improved teaching and learning. Research and experience shows that students can meet high standards, and that low expectations lead to low achievement.

Challenges for All Parties

The goal of the action strategy is for all American students to leave eighth grade prepared to pursue the higher-level mathematics and science courses that are the gateway to college, productive employment, lifelong learning, and effective citizenship. Reaching this goal will require action in five areas:

• High expectations, held by teachers, school administrators, parents, the broader community, and students themselves, for student performance in mathematics and science;

• Challenging standards for content of curriculum, teaching, assessment, and student achievement;

• Instructional materials and technology of high quality that incorporate these challenging standards;

• Teachers with the pedagogical skills and rigorous knowledge of mathematics and science needed to teach these subjects effectively; and

• Activities outside the classroom that reinforce the classroom experience by drawing on the support of parents, the professional communities of mathematicians, scientists, and engineers, business leaders, and the broader public.

Thus, the action strategy:

• Challenges the Department of Education and the National Science Foundation to work together more closely and to partner with other Federal agencies and with State and local educational agencies to strengthen the impact of Federal investments in mathematics and science education.

• Challenges State and local school superintendents, mathematics supervisors, school boards, principals, and other educators to take a fresh, critical look at curricula, instructional materials, and professional development strategies (and the use of Federal resources in these areas) in light of TIMSS and other recent research results and to be prepared, as needed, to reformulate current approaches to improve effectiveness.

• Challenges the nation's colleges and universities to develop rigorous new programs for teacher preparation, stressing both subject matter expertise and pedagogical mastery. These institutions will also need to take a far more active role in enhancing the skills and knowledge of today's teachers and principals, working closely with States, local school districts, and schools in the process.

• Challenges professional organizations in mathematics, science, engineering and technology, health, accounting, transportation, and other fields to partner with schools, parents, students, community organizations, and business and industry in developing a strong network of local partnerships aimed at raising student achievement.

• Challenges U.S. families to provide strong support and encouragement for their children to reach high standards of achievement in mathematics and science.

These challenges are focused on the immediate, urgent need to improve mathematics education in grades 5-8. But to be fully effective, this effort must broaden to include both mathematics and science in all grades once the immediate needs have been addressed.
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[Executive Summary]

[Section II]