by Zoe Pollock
Liz Dwyer summarizes a new Brookings report:
Back in 1964, American 13-year-olds took the First International Math Study and ended up ranking in 11th place. Considering that only 12 nations participated, including Australia, Finland, and Japan, our next-to-last performance was pretty abysmal. Other international tests American students have taken over the years have also never showed that we were in the top spot. It's a myth that we've fallen from our glory days.
But there's a bright side:
Between the 2006 and 2009 PISA tests, our scores "increased 5 points in reading, 13 points in math, and 13 points in science." [Author of the report Tom] Loveless says in his report that this improvement was strangely ignored by the media, politicians, and the education reform chattering class, but it's a notable increase because, according to a researcher from Stanford University, Eric Hanushek,"an increase of 25 points on PISA over the next 20 years would boost United States GDP by $41 trillion. If the gains from 2006 to 2009 are duplicated when the PISA is next given in 2012, the goal of making 25-point gains in math and science will be met far ahead of schedule."