Math reports

While a recent report asserts that U.S. students are far behind students in most other developed countries in mathematics achievement, a review of the study released today finds that it makes deceptive comparisons and exaggerates small differences, rendering the study useless in helping educators improve U.S. students’ math performance.

The Harvard study compared the percentages of U.S. students in the 50 states and 10 urban districts who performed at an advanced level in mathematics on the 2005 NAEP with estimated percentages of students in other countries who would have reached that same level had they taken the NAEP 2005 mathematics assessment. The report indicates that most of those countries had far greater percentages of high achievers than the United States did.

Find Jeremy Kilpatrick’s review on the NEPC website at: http://nepc.colorado.edu/thinktank/review-us-math

Find U.S. Math Performance in Global Perspective by Eric A. Hanushek, Paul E. Peterson, and Ludger Woessmann on the web at:
http://educationnext.org/teaching-math-to-the-talented/ (abridged)
http://tinyurl.com/2czgu4p (unabridged)