Press Release from national Association of Manufacturers
NAM CALLS RANKINGS FROM LATEST INTERNATIONAL TESTING
‘TRULY ALARMING’
Engler: U.S. Math, Science Curricula Not Connecting Today’s Students with Tomorrow’s Jobs’
WASHINGTON, D.C., December 8, 2004 – As a leading advocate for drastically improved 21st century skills training, the National Association of Manufacturers today reacted with disappointment and alarm to the latest results from international testing that ranks U.S. secondary students against their foreign counterparts in math and science competence, among other skills.
“When America’s 15-year-olds demonstrate less math literacy than those in Hungary and the Slovak Republic,” began NAM President John Engler, “U.S. policymakers, educators and employers ought to be shocked into action.” Engler referenced 2003 test results released Monday from the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) that ranked U.S. students 24th out of 29. He also pointed out that another set of international rankings due today from the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) are expected to report similarly dismal results
“American manufacturers and other businesses won’t be able to compete globally without a technically skilled workforce,” Engler continued, “nor will we attract the kind of foreign investment that creates jobs and boosts economic growth.
“We’ve managed some educational advances in primary and secondary schools in the past decade, but it’s obvious that our math and science curricula are still not connecting our kids with what will invariably comprise America’s 21st century career opportunities,” insisted Engler, who championed several successful education reforms when he formerly served as a three-term governor in Michigan. “We must do much more to develop our math and science teachers if we expect them to inspire and motivate their students toward higher learning in engineering and other critical fields.”
Manufacturing Institute Vice President Phyllis Eisen echoed Engler’s concerns, noting for example that China’s colleges and universities now turn out 378,000 engineers annually while those in the U.S. graduate only 68,000, half of whom are foreign born and increasingly sought after by foreign-based companies.
“The family-supporting, mortgage-paying jobs of the future will require ever-higher technical skills, and it’s time to make such skills a true national priority,” Eisen declared. “To do anything less will be to jeopardize America’s future as a major force in the global economy.”
This is yet another indication that the public education system at the elementary, junior high and high school levels is flat out broken.
I know! We can solve this by teaching more creationism in school!
What does creationism have to do with this? Frankly, they could be teaching underwater basket weaving, but they certainly aren’t bothering to teach MATH or SCIENCE.
I agree it is a mess but what’s the solution? I don’t think it’s standardized testing which seems to be the only egg in Bush’s educational basket.
One reason our national average is so low, is because a certain percentage of schools are totally neglected.
My wife went to a well-funded high school and I didn’t. Our experience was very different — so much so that we can hardly relate to each other’s stories.
Once solution that seems to be working is to let’s all those well-educated foreigners immigrate here! But, our current paranoid government is closing that door.
We all know what the problem is, but can’t seem to find within ourselves the courage to do the right thing. Our children are undisciplined and distracted. We don’t allow our schools to deal out discipline, and the kids rush home, complain about how hard school is and then bury themselves in video games or engage in idiotic “conversations” over IM. I think the answer to our problems are boarding schools; uniforms and the whole 9 yards. Paying teachers a little more wouldn’t hurt either.
Money has NOTHING to do with the education problem. I have ADD and attended special ed, parochial, and public schools. At age 7 in special ed schools I was taught pre algebra, I wasn’t challenged in math again until 7th grade. That special ed school was two townhouses with a wall between them knocked out. It was very cold in the winter there. But we learned.
The parochial schools I went to cost about $4000 a year, DC public schools and Fairfax county public schools pay $10,000+ a year per student. The education I recieved from catholic schools was head and shoulders above what I recieved from public schools. That includes one period every day wasted on religion.
Grammar was hammered into me at Our Lady of Victory. I had to write a 2 page composition every week for 4 years. I hated it, I recieved poor grades, but I learned.
There is so much I could say about education. Money is not the solution. Discipline (?) is a start. Schools also have to realize that not everyone is going to go to college. Some kids are dumb, don’t waste the smart kids time placating the stupid ones.
Another thing, I get tired of listening to teachers complain about how much they get paid. I think teaching as a profession should be more highly valued. I don’t think that most current teachers desserve to earn more money. These teachers knew what they would make when they went into the profession (?), why are they surprised at their paycheck.
There is a reason that our unversity system is so good and our elementary, junior high and high school systems are so bad is simple: competition. Public schools do not have to compete whereas public universities do compete (quite well actually). Until we put in a system where the elementary, junior high and high schools can truly compete for students they will generally perform poorly.