Friday, April 7, 2017

USA - TIMSS math analysis

The 2011 4th grade country cohort is followed four years to the 2015 8th grade.
500 is the mean score on TIMSS Math for all countries
the large number of counties scoring below 500
are not shown.   Countries needed TIMSS scores at grade 4 2011
and grade 8 2015 to appear in the table.

USA was in 8th place at 541 in 2011
with Singapore at the top at 606
(USA 65 points behind Singapore)


20112015
grade 4grade 8change
1. Singapore10612115
2. Korea1051061
3. Hong Kong10294-8
Taipei91998
Japan85861
England4218-24
Russian Fed4238-4
8. USA4118-23
Lithuania3412-22
Australia165-11
Hungary1514-1
Slovenia13163
Italy8-6-14
Sweden41-3
Kazakhstan12827
Norway-5-13-8
NewZealand-14-77

USA is at 518 and ranks 9th in 2015
with Singapore at 621
(USA 103 points behind Singapore)

20112015
grade 4grade 8change
1. Singapore10612115
2. Korea1051061
3. Taipei91998
Hong Kong10294-8
Japan85861
Russian Fed4238-4
Kazakhstan12827
England4218-24
9. USA4118-23
Slovenia13163
Hungary1514-1
Lithuania3412-22
Australia165-11
Sweden41-3
Italy8-6-14
NewZealand-14-77
Norway-5-13-8

The USA has been criticized in the past for a mile wide inch deep math curriculum. For the USA fourth grade scores are usually better than 8th as the broad exposure to many topics may produce good scores in grade 4.

But in grade 8 more skill is needed and USA scores tend to drop.

While at first glance the drop from #8 in 2011 to #9 in 2015 would not case alarm the change of -23 indicates a large problem.  Especially for a STEM focused country.

Among high scoring countries USA and England appear to have serious problems with math performance after grade 4.

The USA k-12 math education leadership has been dominated by reform math ideology.   Top scoring Asian countries using a different ideology pull away.  It is past time for the USA to change math practices, if improvement is expected in the future.

Math learning focuses on:
1. Procedural Skill  2. Problem Solving 3. Conceptual Understanding.
An overemphasis on the attempt to teach conceptual understanding has been damaging.  

Practice is currently needed rather than Problem Based Learning. 
2015 USA PISA math low at 470 ....  2015 USA NAEP not good...    
It is time to look seriously at Math Education Leaders.

No comments: