VOA教育报道2023--America’s Poor Math Skills Raise Concerns

America’s Poor Math Skills Raise Concerns

Many Americans joke about how bad they are at math. But, labor¹ experts and others in the United States are not laughing. They say the nation's ever-decreasing math skill threatens U.S. economic competitiveness and national security.

Jim Stigler is a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. He studies the process of teaching and learning subjects, including math. He said, "The advances in technology that are going to drive where the world goes in the next 50 years are going to come from other countries, because they have the intellectual capital and we don't."

The Education Reporting Collaborative, a coalition² of eight news agencies, is documenting the math crisis facing schools. Members of the Collaborative are AL.com, The Associated Press, The Christian³ Science Monitor, The Dallas Morning News, The Hechinger Report, Idaho Education News, The Post and Courier in South Carolina, and The Seattle Times.

The U.S. military has called for a major program to support education in science, technology, education, and math (STEM). It argues that the U.S. is dangerously behind other nations. The Defense⁴ Department says China produces eight times as many college graduates in these study fields as the United States. It says Russia produces four times as many engineers as the U.S.

Government labor experts say the number of jobs in areas requiring math skill will increase by more than 30,000 each year through the end of 2030. That is much faster than most other kinds of jobs.

"Mathematics is becoming more and more a part of almost every career," said Michael Allen. He chairs the math department at Tennessee Technological⁵ University.

But most American students are not prepared for those jobs. In the most recent Program for International Student Assessment⁶ tests in math (PISA), U.S. students tested lower than students from 36 other education systems around the world. Students in China tested the highest.

Only one in five American high school students planning to attend college is prepared for college-level study in STEM, say experts at the National Science and Technology Council, a government group.

However, students from other countries are preparing to lead in these areas, reports the National Foundation for American Policy, a non-profit organization. It says only one in five graduate students in math-heavy fields at U.S. universities are American. The rest come from other countries. Most will leave the U.S. when they finish their programs.

In Massachusetts, employers are expecting a shortage over the next five years of 11,000 workers in the life sciences alone.

"It's not a small problem," said Edward Lambert Jr. He is director of the Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education. "We're just not starting students, particularly students of color and from lower-resourced families, on career paths related to math and computer science and those things in which we need to stay competitive, or starting them early enough," he said.

"This is not an educational question alone," said Josh Wyner, a vice⁷ president of the Aspen Institute, a think tank. In July, it warned that other nations are gaining near to America's technological power.

It urged decision makers⁸ to make education an important national security goal. "We are no longer keeping pace with other countries, particularly China," the Aspen report says, calling this a "dangerous" failure.

Words in This Story

advances – n. progress in the development or improvement of something

intellectual – adj. of or relating to the ability to think in a logical way

graduate – v. to earn a degree or diploma from a school, college, or university

particularly – adv. more than usually

think tank – n. an organization that consists of a group of people who think of new ideas on a particular subject or who give advice about what should be done

pace – n. the speed at which something happens

1 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

2 coalition   

n.结合体，同盟，结合，联合

参考例句：

• The several parties formed a coalition.这几个政党组成了政治联盟。
• Coalition forces take great care to avoid civilian casualties.联盟军队竭尽全力避免造成平民伤亡。

3 Christian   

adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒

参考例句：

• They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
• His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。

4 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

5 technological   

adj.技术的；工艺的

参考例句：

• A successful company must keep up with the pace of technological change.一家成功的公司必须得跟上技术变革的步伐。
• Today,the pace of life is increasing with technological advancements.当今， 随着科技进步，生活节奏不断增快。

6 assessment   

n.评价；评估；对财产的估价，被估定的金额

参考例句：

• This is a very perceptive assessment of the situation.这是一个对该情况的极富洞察力的评价。
• What is your assessment of the situation?你对时局的看法如何？

7 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

8 makers   

n.制造者，制造商（maker的复数形式）

参考例句：

• The makers of the product assured us that there had been no sacrifice of quality. 这一产品的制造商向我们保证说他们没有牺牲质量。
• The makers are about to launch out a new product. 制造商们马上要生产一种新产品。 来自《简明英汉词典》