Thursday, December 06, 2007

U.S. students do worse in science and math

The PISA tests are not exactly demanding, either. More demanding tests would almost certainly show up bigger differences

U.S. students are lagging behind their peers in other countries in science and math, test results out Tuesday show. The test, the Program for International Student Assessment, was given to 15-year-olds in 30 industrialized countries last year. It focused on science but also included a math portion. The 30 countries, including the United States, make up the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which runs the international test. The average scores for U.S. students were lower than the average scores for the group as a whole.

U.S. students also had an average science score that was lower than the average score in 16 other OECD countries. In math, U.S. students did even worse - posting an average score that was lower than the average in 23 of the other leading industrialized countries.

The test also was administered to students in about two dozen countries or jurisdictions that are not part of the industrialized group. When compared with the broader group, the U.S. students fell in the middle of the pack in science and did somewhat worse in math. There was no change in U.S. math scores since 2003, the last time the test was given. The science scores aren't comparable between 2003 to 2006, because the tests aren't the same. U.S. girls and boys did about the same on the science and math portions of the test.

Finland's 15-year-olds did the best on the science test, followed by students in Hong Kong and Canada. Students in Finland, Taiwan, South Korea and Hong Kong were the top performers in math.

Source





Canadian universities say no to affirmative action for men

Females outnumber men by 60-40 split

Despite a growing gender gap on Canadian campuses, universities are balking at a fledgling movement in the United States to make special efforts to attract more men, such as adopting affirmative action initiatives that favour male applicants over female ones. Campus recruiters and admissions managers from Memorial University of Newfoundland to the University of British Columbia in Vancouver say they are taking no extra steps to target male students. Nor do they consider it a problem -- at least not yet -- that female university students outnumber men by about 60-40 on average nationwide.

"It hasn't really come up as a flag," said Andrew Arida, associate director of enrolment at University of British Columbia, summing up the sentiment of several recruitment specialists. "As public universities that take public funds, we have to respond to what the public wants and if more female members of the public want it than male, I can't see us wanting to do something like affirmative action. "That only makes sense if you believe the group for which you are putting the affirmative action in place has experienced some sort of systemic barriers to progressing."

Statistics Canada, in a recent report on future post-secondary enrolment trends, suggested universities and colleges could offset a potential slump that may surface in about 10 years, when the last of the echo baby boomers graduate, by tapping into a "reservoir" of young men who are passing up higher education.

Herb O'Heron, senior adviser for the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada, said that campus recruiters are well aware of the gender imbalance on campus, but that "we're not at the point of affirmative action" to fill the gap. "I would say if you talk to any university enrolment manager across the country they would be aware of the higher levels of female participation and be considering things that would help to attract young men across the country."

For the last 20 years, women have outnumbered men on campus. There are several theories behind the change, including assertions that the grade school system is tailored to girls, there are higher expectations from educators and parents that females will pursue post-secondary education, and that men have less motivation to pursue degrees and diplomas because they can earn good money straight out of high school.

A U.S. study published two years ago in the journal Economics of Education Review revealed many American universities appear to favour men in university admissions as applicant pools become more female. There also have been numerous news story in the United States in which universities and colleges have conceded they give male applicants an easier ride than female applicants in an effort to equalize the gender ratio.

One reason cited by registrars for rejecting special recruitment efforts is enrolment is exploding in most provinces and universities have not had to cast wider nets to attract more students. But even schools that are suffering an enrolment drop, including St. Francis Xavier in Antigonish, N.S., and the University of Regina, say they haven't tried to make up the shortfall by trying to recruit men in particular. "I would say that the University of Regina is more focused on general recruitment," said Barb Pollock, vice president of external relations. "I think universities have to be careful to be as accessible as possible to all people.

Source

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