Alison Kadlec, Will Friedman, and Amber Ott
Public Agenda
September 2007
In an age of increasing global competitiveness, America's economic survival hinges on improving its math and science education. That, more or less, is the opening sentence of about 17,000 recent reports and op-eds, all of them decrying the decrepit state of U.S. math and science education. But while policymakers have started to respond to such warnings--see the America Competes Act, for instance, recently signed by the president--this report shows that students and parents aren't persuaded. Public Agenda asked 1,400 parents and 1,300 students in Kansas and Missouri what they think about the state of math, science, and technology (MST) education. Sixty-five percent of parents strongly agreed that "students with advanced math and science skills will have a big advantage when it comes to work and college opportunities," and 57 percent believed that the U.S. is "far behind other countries" in math and science education. Yet, surprisingly, 70 percent also believed that their local schools were "doing a good job of preparing students," and only 31 percent thought their schools needed to improve math and science "as quickly as possible." Student views were similarly contradictory. Sixty-three percent believed that, to succeed after high school, "it's crucial for most of today's students to learn higher-level math skills," yet when asked whether all students should actually take advanced math courses, only 26 percent answered in the affirmative. (This latter stance may have a certain logic, but it certainly doesn't square with the students' stated belief in the importance of advanced math education.) The authors call this disconnect the "urgency gap." It should be noted, however, that the gap is smaller among minorities. Over 60 percent of black and Hispanic parents believed that their students were not learning basic math, compared with only 42 percent of white parents. One hopes the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, which commissioned the study to inform their MST initiatives in Kansas City, can improve this glum situation in the coming years. Read the report here.
