At an Education Summit held in Charlottesville, VA, in September 1989, a set of eight National Education Goals was established by then President George Bush and the nation's governors (one of whom, then Governor of Arkansas, subsequently succeeded Bush to the Presidency). Each of the past seven years has brought forth a National Education Goals Report, to inform the American people on how well we are on track to reach the goals by the targeted year of 2000. The report is issued by the National Education Goals Panel, comprised of seven governors, four members of Congress, four state legislators, and two representatives from the U.S. Department of Education. How're We Doing?
1997 National Education Goals Report suggests severe shortfall in reaching goals by 2000Of special concern to mathematics and science teachers has been Goal 5: "By the year 2000 United States students will be first in the world in mathematics and science achievement." This goal is also the focus of attention in Chapter 1 of the 1997 Report, which suggests that the goal is nearly achieved at the fourth grade level in science, in that only Korean fourth graders attained statistically significantly higher science scores in the Third International Math and Science Study (TIMSS). On the other hand, American eighth graders scored only slightly above average in science. This decline in scores from fourth to eighth grade was also apparent in math -- from slightly above average at the fourth grade level to slightly below average at eighth.
The dropoff in American scores from fourth to eighth grades and lower scores in mathematics are attributed to "what is taught, and how it is taught." More specifically, the first of these causes is cited for lower math scores, in that "The content covered in 8th grade mathematics classes in the United States is generally covered in the 7th grade in other countries." With regard to the latter cause, it is suggested that many teachers think they are abiding by the teaching standards developed by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics and the National Research Council, when in actuality they are not. Moreover, there is concern that the percentage of teachers teaching outside their fields increased between 1991 and 1994.
Chapter 2 of the 1997 Report asks "How Are We Doing at the National Level?" "National progress on the 26 core indicators is slightly better than the progress that was characterized in the 1996 Goals Report," it says. But when the actual progress is looked at in less relative terms, it is clear that we are nowhere near achieving the National Education Goals by 2000. Among the 26 core indicators, significantly improved performance is seen in only six, while performance has declined in seven. Seven other indicators remain essentially unchanged, and the remaining indicators lack a second data point by which to plot any trend at all. This is all made especially clear in 26 exhibits, mostly bar graphs which show not only the values of the indicators from year to year but also a trend line which needs to be followed to reach the desired value in the year 2000. Chapter 3, which asks "How Are We Doing at the State Level?" consists of charts of 33 indicators for the eight Education Goals, including comparisons with the national values, for each of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and five territories.
To obtain your own free copy of the 1997 National Education Goals Report, call (202)-724-0015, fax (202)-632-0957, e-mail NEGP@goalline.org, or s-mail National Education Goals Panel, 1255 22nd St., NW, Suite 502, Washington, DC 20037. All reports from the National Education Goals Panel can be accessed via their web site: http://www.negp.gov/WEBPG70.HTM.
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The TEACHERS CLEARINGHOUSE FOR SCIENCE AND SOCIETY EDUCATION