While American students perform better on math and science standardized tests than many students across Europe, they lag behind their peers in Asian countries.
In a study conducted last month, Gary Phillips, chief scientist at the American Institutes of Research, found that 17 percent of college degrees in the United States are related to science, technology, engineering or math. In Asian countries, 64 percent of degrees come from those subject areas.
"The good news is we were in the better half of the results," he said. "The bad news is even our top-placing states, like Massachusetts, lagged behind forerunning Asian countries such as South Korea and Japan."
Phillips said he developed the study in order to provide states with a broader knowledge base to gauge their own schools' performances. Instead of only comparing standardized test scores between states, he said states now can compare their results with 45 other countries.
Weighed against other states in Phillips' study, Wisconsin placed 17th in eighth grade math scores and 10th in eighth grade science scores, according to the study.
Michele Korb, instructor in the School of Education, said standardized tests can be a good indicator of what students have learned, but they do not tell the whole story.
"Standardized tests can be a general measure of reading comprehension and give educators a general idea of where kids are with general skills," she said. "But the most accurate way to assess schools is to observe kids."
Although the study's results assist in the evaluation of schools worldwide, some contemporaries of Phillips are not satisfied with its findings.
Gage Kingsbury, director of research at the Northwest Evaluation Association, which administers standardized tests in Oregon, questioned the precision of such an analysis.
"The way the tests are treated in other countries is vastly different," he said. "If students in different countries have different levels of motivation going into the test, how can we think that the results are comparable?"
In addition to the motivational differences between countries, Kingsbury said children do not begin school at the same age across the globe, nor do countries teach the same content in the same order. As a result, he said he believes Phillips' research is difficult to interpret accurately.
Korb said she believes it is difficult to compare a homogeneous country, like Japan, to a country as diverse as the United States. She said the United States must work with many different cultures in a learning setting, whereas countries like Japan deal primarily with one culture.
Even so, Phillips said the study's outcome is a sign of the United States and other nations' views toward education.
"The results attest to our global competition and our future competition," he said. "They show that we are in the race, but we are not winning it."
Phillips said there is no clear path to improving American students' math and science scores.
Educational administrators can raise standards, he said, but until parents and teachers place more emphasis on and understanding of math and science, the scores will not improve.
According to the National Science Foundation, two-thirds of people in the United States do not understand DNA, margin of error, the scientific process and do not believe in evolution. Half think humans coexisted with dinosaurs.
"Look at the big problems of the world, such as global warming and overpopulation," Phillips said. "They are all science-related problems."