Published March 1992 — Download PDF of the original newspaper column
Byrd's-Eye View By U.S. Senator Robert C. Byrd Latest International Report Card In Science and Mathematics
In a clear portent of continued difficulty in competing in future world markets and high technology development, the Educational Testing Service (ETS) of Princeton, New Jersey -- the nation's premier standardized testing organization -recently released the results of an international mathematics and science test. Despite several years of growing concern about the relative ability of American school children to compete against their foreign counterparts, the ETS examination results demonstrate that U.S. students are still performing below the international average in mathematics and science. On the examinations administered internationally to roughly 175,000 students aged 9 years and 13 years, American students averaged well behind students in such countries as Korea, Taiwan, Switzerland, the former Soviet Union, Hungary, Canada, and even Slovenia. Japan and Germany declined to participate in this effort. The American students tested were a cross section of their age groups, representing middle-class and suburban children as well as inner-city and lower-income examinees. Throughout my career, I have strongly supported programs and efforts to improve and expand educational opportunities for our young people. Investments in developing the minds and intellects of future generations are among the wisest, most farseeing that we can make. Indeed, affording our children the best education possible is one of the most important contributions that we can make to the future security, strength, and prosperity of West Virginia and the nation, and I shall continue my efforts to promote better schools and improved education. Interestingly, ETS officials emphasized that those students watching the most television daily on average performed worse than those who watched only moderately or not at all. Also, while most competing countries abroad honor bright students and celebrate academic achievement, ETS officials said that a national American attitude that holds bright students in popular contempt as "nerds" or "dweebs," while lionizing athletic prowess and winning beauty contests, discourages better scholastic achievement by many American students. The destiny of our state and nation rests on the quality of our schools and the education that they offer. Our schools are our front line in the ongoing battle for future success in the world economy, and the struggle for continued American economic power and international political influence begins at the door of our schoolhouses. March 4, 1992