Steven Leinwand, American Institutes for Research and Alan Ginsburg, US Department of Education [2.5MB PDF] via a kind reader’s email:
Higher expectations for achievement and greater exposure to more difficult and complex mathematics are among the major difference between Hong Kong, home of the world’s top-performing 4th grade math students, and Massachusetts, which is the highest scoring state on the U.S. National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP), according to a report by the American Institutes for Research (AIR).
While Massachusetts 4th grade students achieved a respectable fourth place when compared with countries taking the 2007 Grade 4 Trends in Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS-4), Hong Kong students outperformed the Bay State 4th graders in numerous categories.
The Hong Kong performance advantage over Massachusetts was especially large in the percentage of its students achieving at the very highest level. For example, 40 percent of Hong Kong students achieved at the advanced TIMSS level, compared with only 22 percent of Massachusetts students.
To help understand why Hong Kong students outperform Massachusetts students, the AIR study identified differences between the items on Hong Kong’s and Massachusetts’ internal mathematics assessments administered in the spring of grade 3 in 2007 to gather insight into the relative mathematical expectations in Hong Kong and Massachusetts.
The AIR report found that the Hong Kong assessment contained more difficult items, especially in the core areas of numbers and measurement, than the Massachusetts assessment.
“The more rigorous problems on the Hong Kong assessment demonstrate that, even at Grade 3, deep conceptual understanding and the capacity to apply foundational mathematical concepts in multistep, real-world situations can be taught successfully,” said Steven Leinwand, Principal Research Analyst at AIR and co-author of the report.
Definitely differences in the level of math required – wow, stark. There seems to be little math required to answer the questions in the Mass. test (more definition, little/no computation), but the ability to understand and to apply more complex math concepts at the age tested is shown in the Hong Kong math test. This is very disconcerting to see.
Is this level of math taught to all children in Hong Kong who go to school (all socio-economic levels)? Do all children in Hong Kong take the tests?
Plus, there is no getting around knowing one’s basic math facts – period – if you’re going to complete the Hong Kong test with any degree of success..
The difference between the two questions is not so stark in the first case. Both are relatively easy, but the MA test is multiple choice, while the HK question is fill-in-the-blank. Of course, the first MA question could be made into an fill-in-the-blank question, but another constraint would be required to narrow the potential answers, from infinite, to two, or to one.
Then, the question of how many questions and how much time is given for each test. Many multiple-choice questions and short time will test for coverage and not depth of knowledge (mile-wide, inch deep), and be computer scored, and would test for cognition and rapid access to memorized material. Less coverage but more depth would require fill-in, and short statement questions, and hand-grading, and might test more deductive, inductive and evaluative knowledge.
If the MA kind-of-test is like other US tests I’ve seen sample questions from, it seems to require more language skills, than HK, for example. BTW, this heavy emphasis on language skills for US math curriculum is likely the reason we see substantial correlation between verbal and math skills in the US.
In the 1980’s it was discovered that women and minorities were behind men/boys in math. The edu-crats could have none of that so instead of coming up with a strategy and curricula to lift all, they devised the child centered constructivist pish-posh we have today. Everyone was dumbed down. Boys, needing hard and fast rules got none of it. Girls, needing that too, could now handle the easy slop served up. Edu-crats cried success as a few domestic reports showed girls/minorities improving.
It was, rather, a crime.
how are the discussions/recommendations coming along from the MMSD task force to improve math abilities among students?
Does anyone know if Hong Kong students have more or less school days per year?