at the National Center for Education Statistics. “The [IEA] has pulled together a bunch of experts that have been able to identify what skills are associated with certain scores. You know if a student reaches a score, they can do a set of skills.” In 2011, the last time TIMSS data were collected, 40 percent of American 8th graders achieved at least the “High” benchmark, up 10 percent from the initial assessment in 1995. Singapore, the top-scoring nation in both 1995 and 2011, saw a 13 percent gain, with “High” or better achievement rising from 56 percent to 69 percent. “The U.S. has seen improvement; scores are going up in both math and science,” says Provasnik. “The reality is that the other countries are showing improvement, too, and some are showing more improvement than we are. We aren’t performing as well—and not showing as much improvement—as the countries that are doing the best.” The statistics under the top benchmark reveal a more troubling American picture. In 2011, 10 percent of American 8th graders achieved the “Advanced” level. Four times as many Singaporean 8th graders claimed that title. Even the third-place performer, South Korea, has double the U.S. percentage. Of the 10 countries that ranked higher than the United States in the 2011 TIMSS assessment, the top four are Asian nations (Singapore, Chinese Taipei, South Korea, and Japan), followed by Russia, England, Finland, Slovenia, Israel, and Australia. America lags further behind as the gap continues to grow, but experts say there’s hope.
DESIGNING THE EXPERIMENT In April of this year, a group of four national organizations released the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), the first revision of national
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science standards since the 1990s. The new standards are poised to create a seismic shift in how science is taught and assessed in the United States. Achieve, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit, nonpartisan education organization, spearheaded the process of creating NGSS. It began with the Framework for k-12 Science Education—a report released in July 2011 by the National Research Council (NRC) to present the most current knowledge on science and cognitive development. “The Framework was a critical first step because it is grounded in the most current research on science and science learning and identifies the science all k-12 students should know,” says Achieve Senior Science Advisor Jennifer Childress about the foundational work that shaped NGSS. “The committee [developing NGSS] included practicing scientists, including two Nobel laureates, cognitive scientists, science education researchers, and science education standards and policy experts.”
America lags further behind as the gap continues to grow, but experts say there’s hope.