By Omar Lopez, DFER Policy Analyst
Thirty-two.
Thirty-two is the most important number when it comes to the state of American mathematics education. According to a new report conducted by Harvard’s Program on Education Policy and Governance entitled, “Globally Challenged: Are U.S. Student Ready to Compete?,” only 32 percent of U.S. students in the Class of 2011 scored a proficient score on the PISA (Program for International Student Assessment), an international standardized test given to students in 65 countries. This ranks the United States 32nd in mathematics proficiency. Shanghai tops the list with 75 percent proficiency.
It is no surprise that the achievement gap continues to be an issue, with “42 percent of white students identified as proficient in math, while only 11 percent of African American students, 15 percent of Hispanic students, and 16 percent of Native Americans were so identified. Fifty percent of students with an ethnic background from Asia and the Pacific Islands, however, were proficient in math.”
In order to consider the oft-expressed claim that comparisons do not take into account the fact that the United States is a much more diverse society than many of the high-performing countries, they compared U.S. white students to all students in other countries. “While the 42 percent math proficiency rate for U.S. white students is much higher than the averages for students from African American and Hispanic backgrounds, U.S. white students are still surpassed by all students in 16 other countries.”