Elementary and Secondary Mathematics and Science Education

"Overview"

U.S. education reform at the elementary and secondary levels continues to focus on improving students' learning. Reform goals include increasing student achievement, reducing performance gaps between students in different demographic groups, and raising the international ranking of U.S. students from the middle to the top on international tests (The White House n.d.).1 Although policymakers have remained committed to these goals, strategies and efforts to promote them have shifted over time. Most recently, the federal government has given states seeking to meet these goals more flexibility by granting them waivers from the stringent standards required by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB).2 In exchange for the waivers, the states agreed to undertake essential reforms to raise standards, improve accountability, and enhance teacher effectiveness (U.S. Department of Education 2012a). In addition, the federal government created the Race to the Top (RTTT) grant program, inviting states to voluntarily participate in this program designed to promote state-led reform efforts (U.S. Department of Education 2009, 2011). Through grant competition, RTTT encourages states and local school districts to design and implement their own reform plans to address their unique educational challenges (see sidebar, "Race to the Top").

Concern about the ability of the United States to compete in the global economy has also lent urgency to calls for reform of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education (National Academy of Science 2005; NSB 2007). Federal and state policymakers and legislators have called for national efforts to develop a strong STEM pathway from high schools to colleges that eventually will expand the STEM-capable workforce in the United States (Kuenzi 2008; NGA 2011; President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology 2012; The White House n.d). At the K–12 level, reform efforts to improve mathematics and science learning include increasing advanced coursetaking in these areas, promoting early participation in gatekeeper courses such as algebra 1, recruiting and training more mathematics and science teachers, designing new curricular standards for mathematics and science learning, and expanding secondary education programs that prepare students to enter STEM fields in college (Engberg and Wolniak 2013). Recently, the National Research Council (NRC) began working with the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the U.S. Department of Education to develop a new set of indicators that will track national progress in K–12 mathematics and science teaching and learning (see sidebar, "Monitoring Progress Toward Successful K–12 STEM Education").

"Organization"

To provide a national portrait of K–12 STEM education in the United States, this chapter compiles indicators of precollege mathematics and science learning based mainly on data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) of the U.S. Department of Education. Table 1-1 contains an overview of the topics covered in this chapter and the indicators used to address them.

This chapter is organized into five sections. The first section begins with data from a new longitudinal study of U.S. kindergartners conducted in 2010–11. These data provide a snapshot of kindergarten students' status as they enter school, including baseline measures of their mathematics and science performance. This section then covers elementary and secondary students' performance on standardized mathematics and science assessments, focusing on recent trends in student performance, changes in performance gaps among different groups, and the international standing of U.S. students vis-à-vis their peers abroad.

The second section focuses on mathematics and science coursetaking in high school. It begins by examining ninth graders' enrollment in mathematics and science courses, providing information on what courses students take as they enter high school. The section then uses data from the College Board to examine trends in participation and performance in the STEM-related Advanced Placement (AP) programs among high school graduating classes. High school course completion data from the most recent transcript studies were reported in the 2012 edition of Science and Engineering Indicators; no new course completion data were available for this volume. Therefore, this section is somewhat limited because of fewer data.

The third section turns to U.S. elementary, middle, and high school mathematics and science teachers in 2012, examining their experience, licensure, subject matter preparation, professional development, and working conditions. In addition, this section presents new data on beginning mathematics and science teachers' attrition in the first 3 years of teaching.

The fourth section examines how technology is used as an instructional tool in K–12 education. In the absence of nationally representative data, this section mainly provides a literature review, focusing on term definitions, emerging policies and practices, and the latest research findings on the effects of instructional technology and distance education on student learning in mathematics and science.

The last section presents indicators of student transitions from secondary to postsecondary education?the subject of chapter 2 in this volume. Updated indicators include ontime high school graduation rates, immediate college enrollment rates, and international comparisons of high school graduation rates and postsecondary enrollment. This section also includes data on remedial coursetaking by beginning postsecondary students, an indicator of the extent to which secondary schools prepare entering students for collegelevel work.

This chapter focuses primarily on national patterns and trends, but it also discusses variation in student performance or access to educational resources by demographic, family, and school characteristics.3 Because of the unavailability of national data, this chapter cannot report indicators for many other activities that are important to understanding K–12 STEM education, such as use of high-quality mathematics and science curricular materials, time spent on mathematics and science learning, participation in STEM-related activities outside of school, and interest in pursuing a STEM degree and career. In addition, certain measures in this chapter may not capture the full dimension of the construct being examined (e.g., family poverty is determined by students' eligibility for free/reduced-price lunch instead of being calculated directly from family income). These limitations may impede providing a full picture of STEM education at the K–12 level.

"Conclusions"

Raising student achievement, reducing performance gaps, and improving the international ranking of U.S. students on achievement tests from the middle to the top are high priorities for education reform across the United States. How well does this country perform in these areas? The indicators in this chapter present a mixed picture of the progress of elementary and secondary mathematics and science education in the United States. NAEP mathematics assessment results show that average mathematics scores for fourth and eighth graders have increased substantially since 1990, but this improvement has slowed down or halted for many groups in recent years. In science, eighth graders made small gains from 2009 to 2011. Overall, a large majority of U.S. fourth and eighth graders did not demonstrate proficiency in the knowledge and skills taught at their grade level. In particular, students from disadvantaged backgrounds lagged behind their more advantaged peers, with these disparities starting as early as kindergarten. International assessments have also produced mixed results. Although U.S. students have performed above the international average on the TIMSS mathematics and science tests, they have not been among the very top-achieving groups in the world.

Efforts to improve student achievement include raising high school graduation requirements, strengthening the rigor of curriculum standards, increasing advanced coursetaking, and promoting early participation in gatekeeper courses such as algebra 1. These efforts have brought some positive changes: increasing numbers of states adopted a common set of rigorous academic standards designed to ensure that students graduate from high school prepared for college and careers; rising proportions of students earned advanced mathematics and science credits before high school completion; large majorities of ninth graders took algebra 1 during or before their freshman year; and the number of students taking mathematics and science AP exams doubled in the recent decade. There is still room for improvement, however: the overall percentage of students taking mathematics and science AP tests remains very small; a sizeable number of students do not take any math or science in their freshman year; and wide gaps among students from different social and economic backgrounds persist.

Efforts to improve student achievement also focus on ensuring that all students have access to highly qualified teachers, although there has not yet been a consensus on what constitutes a "highly qualified" teacher. The majority of K–12 mathematics and science teachers held a teaching certificate and had taught their subjects for 3 or more years. Indicators of in-field teaching and undergraduate coursework suggest that high school mathematics and science teachers were generally better prepared for their teaching subjects than middle and elementary school teachers. Fully certified, well-prepared, and experienced teachers were not evenly distributed across schools or classes. Overall, schools or classes with lower concentrations of non-Asian minority and low-income students and higher concentrations of high-achieving students were more likely to have fully certified and better-prepared mathematics and science teachers. Working conditions were also not evenly distributed across schools: high-poverty schools were more likely to suffer from various problems that inhibit effective teaching (e.g., low student interest, high absenteeism, inadequate teacher preparation, and lack of materials and supplies).

The majority of middle and high school mathematics and science teachers participated in subject-focused professional development activities, but elementary science teachers were far less likely to do so. Many teachers reported that their professional development activities were of short duration, lasting in total from less than 6 hours to 35 hours during the past 3 years. About a quarter of secondary mathematics and science teachers left teaching within 3 years of entering the profession; this attrition rate was more than double the rate for other secondary-level teachers.

Recent federal and state policies encourage greater use of technology throughout the education system as a way to improve students' learning experience. The use of instructional technology in K–12 classrooms has been growing at a rapid pace. Many school districts have invested in technology such as computers and mobile devices. The number of students participating in online learning courses is also rising, jumping from 220,000 in 2003 to an estimated 1.8 million in 2010. Rigorous research on the effects of instructional technology and online learning has just begun, showing some modest positive effects on student mathematics learning, but far more research is needed to determine which technologies are effective and under what conditions.

Ensuring that students graduate from high school and are ready for college or the labor market is an important goal of high school education in the United States. Since 2006, the U.S. on-time high school graduation rates have improved steadily. In 2010, the vast majority of public high school students graduated with a regular diploma 4 years after entering ninth grade. Significant racial and ethnic and sex differences persisted, however, with white, Asian or Pacific Islander, and female students having higher graduation rates than their counterparts. In the broad international context, the United States ranked 22nd in graduation rates among 26 OECD countries with available data in 2010, and its relative standing has not improved in recent years.

The vast majority of high school seniors expect to attend college after completing high school, and many do so directly after high school graduation. Immediate college enrollment rates have increased for all students as well as for many demographic groups since 1975, although this upward trend leveled off somewhat from 2009 to 2011. Wide gaps have persisted, with black students, Hispanic students, lowincome students, and students whose parents have less education enrolling in college at lower rates than their peers. Large proportions of college entrants, particularly those beginning at 2-year or minimally selective 4-year institutions, took remedial courses to address their skill deficiencies in mathematics and other areas.