Tuesday, January 04, 2005

Math/Science Deficit

From a Prof. of Mathematics. I like his sarcastic final comment

1. We have a big math/science deficit in this country. This is to say that we need more mathematically and scientifically trained people than we produce.

2. So we have to scare up a good many appropriately skilled people to make up the difference.

3. Since American students' average scores on international achievement tests in math and science are middling at best, we can't find enough such people among ourselves. There isn't a large pool of American students from which to draw new mathematicians and scientists.

4. As a result we turn to other countries that have produced relatively more such people than we have.

5. The bottom line is that our business and scientific competitiveness is being underwritten, at least to an extent, by foreigners who come here to work and study.

6. There are signs, however, that other nations are getting tired of this and we may need to induce them to continue doing so by making it easier and more attractive for their students and professionals to come here. But we're doing just the opposite. We're making it increasingly difficult for foreign nationals to obtain visas while foreign universities and corporations are becoming increasingly attractive to them. This past year, for example, foreign applications to American graduate schools were down almost 30 percent. The global education market is not working smoothly because we're making it harder for human capital to enter the country. If we don't produce more scientists and engineers or get them from other countries, we'll soon be in trouble.

But there is some good international news too. Our students and our treasury officials score among the highest in the world in self-esteem and self-regard.

More here





HAVE TEXAS AND NC REDUCED THE RACIAL DIFFERENCE IN EDUCATIONAL ACHIEVEMENT?

Statistics whizz La Griffe du Lion notes this problem:

North Carolina and Texas have decade-long records of successful education reform. As a result, student performance in both states has improved dramatically. To everyone's delight, all racial and ethnic groups have improved. But has the racial gap narrowed? Yes, say state-administered tests. No say the national NAEP tests. Which assessment is correct, and why do they differ?


Am I the only cynic who could see immediately what was going on -- that the easier you make the test, the less meaningful it will become? In the limiting case, if it so easy that EVERYBODY passes, there will be NO racial gap. And I guess we have all heard about the tremendous tendency to grade inflation in recent years. Anyway, La Griffe goes into the most painstaking detail to prove just that. As he initially points out:

In Texas and North Carolina pass rates have been improving. Both states are in the high pass-rate region. There, gains in pass rates by whites will be accompanied by even greater gains by blacks. When pass rates are high, incremental student gains guarantee a gap decrease. Whether this be the reason for the gap reductions in North Carolina and Texas remains to be seen. My main point is that gap reductions, rather than reflecting a return on educational investment, can be a formal consequence of mean-score difference invariance.


And as he finally concludes after the most rigorous examination of the statistics:

Correctly interpreted, the tests tell the same story: In the past decade no meaningful gap reduction occurred in either North Carolina or Texas.


***************************

For greatest efficiency, lowest cost and maximum choice, ALL schools should be privately owned and run -- with government-paid vouchers for the poor and minimal regulation.

Comments? Email me here. For times when blogger.com is playing up, there is a mirror of this site (viewable even in China!) here

***************************

No comments: