State of US Science Report Shows Disturbing Trends 574
coondoggie writes to mention that the National Science Board is concerned about certain indicators in the science and engineering fields for the United States. "For example, US schools continue to lag behind internationally in science and math education. On the other hand, the US is the largest, single, R&D-performing nation in the world pumping some $340 billion into future-related technologies. The US also leads the world in patent development."
scientific elites (Score:2, Informative)
The US is not immune... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Hypocrisy (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Sooo... It's called... (Score:5, Informative)
Hell, the US is GOOD at out-sourcing, even outsourcing education. Sure, foreign students from abroad attend some of the ivy league (lower-casing intentional) schools here, but many attend in Europe, too. Some even attend here, then SPEND their time in Europe after having had enough of the US, but are still in school and have too many friends here.
Plus, there are cultural reasons (corruption, leadership by cronies and elders who might not see the logic in empowering their local populations), or other reasons in regions where there's just not enough money and will to outright build new, world-class, competitive, lasting and door-knocking throngs of students. So, they ship them out or allow them to be recruited by US colleges needing cash infusion.
Do you KNOW how many Japanese, Chinese, Korean, and Indian students HERE in the US come from families that put them up in $1,000/month apartments, send them to renowned as well as dubious schools or "academies" that cost $80,000 to $200,000 for maybe 3 or 4 years? LOTS. It's a churning industry, and they keep getting fuller and fuller. Recruiting or otherwise attracting well-off kids whose parents want the brightest futures for their kids. Not saying ALL Asian families are that way, though.
Re:"It's so hard!" (Score:3, Informative)
I teach introductory electrical engineering courses, and am constantly dismayed at the number of engineering students who (a) cannot read a graph, (b) cannot determine the slope and y-intercept of a straight line drawn on an x-y plane, and (c) cannot take two equations with two variables (e.g. x+y=5, 2x-3y=1) and solve for those variables. This is stuff that was taught to me in high school, and it is completely beyond the capability of many of my students.
At the same time, these same students often have multiple AP credits in mathematics that allows them to skip the first or even second semester of calculus. The result? Few of them can take a simple derivative or integral either. I'm not talking about integration by parts, or the chain rule. I'm talking about taking the derivative or integral of x^2, or e^2x.
Clearly something is missing from current high school math curriculums compared to 20 years ago. Personally I would love to ban AP credits at my place of work as well, but as everyone points out: "If we don't accept AP credits, the students will simply apply to a school that does." It's dumbing down by the lowest common denominator.
Re:Sooo... (Score:5, Informative)
Everyone is talking about college graduates. If these belly-achers stopped and read the actual article, they would find their complaining was ill-founded except for the natural bitterness that comes with old age. None of the key indicators suggested that the abilities of college graduates have declined. The indicators suggest that the numbers of such graduates are not keeping pace with the rest of the world.
This knee-jerk bashing of new college graduates and the irresponsible moderators who give these idiots a voice need to be stopped. Such attitudes and bias are likely part of the force that drives the US's decline in science. Get over your old age! I have.
Re:The World is Flat.... (Score:3, Informative)
That's all nice speculation, and no doubt (like much of what Friedman writes) backed by an anecdote or two, but there's little empirical evidence that the US deficiencies in one area of education are offset by US advantages elsewhere.
Looking at other studies, in the 2003 PISA study, for instance, the US scored right about the OECD average in reading, below OECD average in problem solving, below OECD average in math, and below OECD average in science.
If one wants to assert that the educational weaknesses in the US in math and science are the consequence of policies that produce strengths in other areas, empirical evidence of that strength would be welcome.
A more likely explanation for the weaknesses in science and math is a general weakness in education that manifest primarily through inequity. In the science-focussed 2006 PISA study, the US performed below average overall, but had an average proportion of top performers and an above average proportion of poor performers. The study also found that the US had an stronger than average correlation between socioeconomic background and performance, and unusually large gap between performance both of immediate immigrants and the general population and what it refers to as "second-generation immigrants" (what usually in the US are referred to as "first-generation" -- children whose parents are immigrants) and the general population.
It also notes that US students express a high personal value of science, a high personal motivation to learn science and, despite below average performance, one of the highest levels of confidence in their scientific proficiency of students in any of the studied countries. (Briefing paper here [oecd.org].)
Re:Sooo... (Score:4, Informative)
Hardly. This is what's known as "economic freedom". The US is currently ranked #5, right behind Hong Kong, Singapore, Ireland, and Australia. Now, number five in the world isn't bad, but it's clearly not number one either.
Re:Sooo... (Score:3, Informative)
This sort of shows the idea of the decreasing payout.
Re:I don't get it... (Score:2, Informative)
(1) is plain wrong. Kids care as much or as little as they have in the past. If you don't believe me, ask your parents. As in the past, some kids care and some do not. The percentages of each have varied little.
I have never seen any affect on my fellow students based on (2). In fact, there is a higher percentage of students living in divorced households in the AP classes that I am in than in the student body as a whole (55-70% of the students in my AP classes come from single-parent households, which is significantly higher than the national divorce rate).
I'm going to assume in (3) that you are talking about the teachers - that's what it sounds like. That is going to vary so much from district to district, state to state, and region to region that it would be pretty difficult to make any generalization based on it. However, with the current rate that teachers are paid at, it would be hard to see someone doing it without being enthusiastic. Anecdotally, all the teachers at my school do it not for the money (obviously), but because it's important. One time my English teacher showed us a letter from a college friend of his that related back to something we were doing it in class. His friend had signed it "Keep fighting the good fight," and, when I asked my teacher what that was about, I was informed that he had wanted to do something to make a difference in the world - the reason that he got into teaching. If you're talking about support and enthusiasm among the general populace, then I agree - and declare you awful hypocritical.
The main failure mentioned in (4) is due to a lack of funds - see below.
(5) is completely and utterly ridiculous. Cheating is no more prevalent now than it was 50 years ago. Again, ask your parents before you open your mouth.
(Note that I am not an atheist) To say that atheists have a "lack of hope" is utterly ridiculous. Simply because they do not believe in the afterlife does not mean that there is no hope. There is hope in improving the human condition - for themselves and others -, in improving their time on the Earth, and the length of it.
Religion is a NON-ISSUE in the degrading scientific education system in America
Ironic considering you tied the degradation of scientific education to the degradation of morals and then tied morals to religion. You, too, are claiming that religion is a part of the degradation of the education system. You are just arguing the opposite point - that it is the degradation of religion causing problems, rather than religion itself.
The main problem contributing to the degradation of our education system is the lack of funds. The government (federal and state) is becoming increasingly unwilling to appropriate funds for education. It is reflecting itself in low pay for the teachers, bad facilities in the schools, increased class sizes, and fewer classes overall.
To use anecdotal evidence again, in my chemistry class the school would not give us money to do labs so the teacher would spend her own money on chemicals, beakers, and other supplies. To support this, after a 9-hour day at school (7:00-3:00) and additional hours grading assignments, she worked part-time at a local store.
The various classes get new textbooks once every five years or so, which is decent, though they are quite worn from having gone through at a minimum 10 pairs of hands (2 semesters * 5 years). What really suffers is the English department, though. They get new books once in a blue moon