APPENDIX A

 

                   A LIST OF TEST/RESEARCH RESULTS

TESTIFYING TO THE DISMAL STATE OF AMERICAN EDUCATION

IN COMPARISON TO OTHER INDUSTRIALIZED NATIONS

 

! In a new academic achievement test, given to some 600 sixth‑grade students in eight industrialized countries, the American students, chosen to be representative of the nation, finished last in mathematics, sixth out of eight in science, and as to geography, 20 percent of the Americans at one school could not find the U.S. on a world map. The Chicago Tribune reported these findings under the headline: "Study hands world dunce cap to U.S. pupils."⁵

 

! According to Lauro Cavazos, former US Secretary of Education, when compared to their peers in other industrialized nations,

         Our students rank near the bottom in math and science scores;

         The top five percent of our high‑school students know less about math than the average high‑school student in Japan;

         Our best high‑school students ‑those bound for college‑ rank near the bottom of students from 13 advanced countries in chemistry and physics;

         Our students finish last in biology;

         Approximately 27 million Americans lack basic literacy skills and an estimated 50 million more are functionally illiterate, unable to read well enough to perform effectively in the work place;

         Nationally, the average graduation rate after four years of high school was 71.1 percent in 1988. Some 600,000 to 700,000 students drop out of school every year.⁶

 

! Tests administered by The International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement revealed the following:

         On a chemistry achievement test, high‑school students in Hong Kong ranked first among 13 countries, followed by England and Singapore. Americans ranked 11th.

         In physics, Hong Kong was first again, followed by England and Hungary. American students who took two years of physics ranked ninth.

         Singapore scored first in biology, followed by England, Hungary and Poland. In biology, the most popular science course, U.S. kids ranked last.⁷

 

! Chester Finn, former US assistant Secretary of Education, commenting on a 1995 Department of Education Report relates the following:

         High‑school seniors could not read as well in 1994 as in 1992 ‑and the results were far from satisfactory in 1992.

         1994 reading scores are woeful. Only one high‑school senior in three was a "proficient" reader in 1994, i.e., functioning at the level that the National Assessment Governing Board says all youngsters should reach. Almost as many‑30 per cent‑were "below basic," significant erosion form 1992's 25 per cent. "Below basic" means essentially non‑functional as readers, even though the young people taking the test were within a few months of graduating. And that means last year's graduation ceremonies dumped about 750,000 more semi‑literate 18-year‑olds into the work force with high‑school diplomas clutched in their fists. (Out of 2.5 million graduates, only about 100,000 were reading at

"advanced" or "world class " levels.)

         For minority youngsters, the news is still bleaker; only 12 per cent of black high‑school seniors are "proficient" readers, fewer than 1 per cent are "advanced," and 54 percent are "below basic." (The corresponding figures for Hispanic students are 1 per cent advanced, 18 per cent proficient, and 48 per cent below basic.)

         Weak performance is by no means confined to poor and minority youngsters or inner‑city schools. In up‑scale Montgomery County, Maryland, where nearly everybody graduates from high school and 86 per cent go on to higher education, the local community college found last fall that 71 per cent of students entering from the county schools were deficient in math and half failed to meet the English standards.

         California Learning Assessment System test (now defunct) revealed in 1994 that only 23 per cent of fourth‑graders were reading satisfactorily; 28 per cent were proficient in math.

         Another recent OECD report gives the lie to those who still argue that what ails U.S. education is lack of money. Our outlay per public‑school pupil was estimated by OECD statisticians at $6,010 in 1992, ahead of all 21 of the other reporting countries‑‑ Austria ranked second at $5,490‑‑ and way ahead of the OECD country mean of $4,180.⁸

 

! In the 1988 International Achievement Test, when the American team of 13‑year‑olds not only came in last in mathematics proficiency, way behind countries such as South Korea and Japan, but placed themselves first when asked to guess their own ranking. The author reporting this news comments, "Not only are American students ignorant, they are arrogant."⁹

 

! John Chubb, co‑author of a Brookings Institution report of 1990 that was sharply critical of U.S. public schools says, "By most standards, Japanese students are doing better than American students. Japanese students have one of the highest high school completion rates in the world‑94 percent by age 18 versus only 75 percent for American students."

         However, American students are more deluded about their schools and their own achievement levels than are Japanese children. The Junior Achievement-Gallup International Youth Survey of 750 American and 790 Japanese junior and senior high school students found:

         56 percent of U.S. students say they have a "great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in public schools, compared with 44 percent of Japanese;

         More U.S. students  than Japanese students claim they are "very  interested" in studying math, arts and music, science, and business. Japanese interest exceeds that of Americans only in social studies and history‑36 percent to 33 percent‑and foreign language study ‑43 percent to 31 percent.¹⁰

 

! Warren S. Ross, a research scientist in the oil industry, reports:

         In 1985, 75% of Japanese students outscored the average of our top 5% in mathematics, and

         In the late 1980s only 6% of American 11th graders were found able to solve problems involving simple interest.

         And adds, "The poor performance of American students continues into the 1990s, even as parents and teachers pat themselves on the back for having turned things around."¹¹

                                                                             

! Of the 933 doctorates in mathematics awarded in the United States in 1990, only 43 percent went to American citizens, the lowest percentage on record. In recent years, foreign students have won increasing shares of advanced United States degrees in engineering, mathematics and several sciences. The latest survey suggests that the trend is continuing.¹²

 

! According to Bob M. Thornton, a professor of education at the University of West Florida, "Today's 21-year-old college seniors are no longer expected to face material that most high-school students had to have mastered merely to get into a four-year college a few short years ago."¹³