Blacks in Computer Science: The Secrets of their Success
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Global vs. U.S. Education
-Charlotte Observer-Contributing editor Karen McMahan-Jul. 01, 2008--By grade 12, only 3 percent of African American students are proficient in math, 4 percent of Hispanics, 10 percent of Native Americans, 20 percent of white Americans, and 34 percent of Asian Americans. Yet 70 percent of American parents “think their child's high school is teaching the right amount of math and science.
China has about 194 million students in K-12, India has 212 million and the United States has 53 million. While China and India educate only a fraction of their children compared to the United States, their raw numbers dwarf those of America, and their middle class is rapidly growing, so those figures will increase over time.
Critics worry that Americans aren't paying close enough attention to the rapid leveling of the playing field among students worldwide and the economic implications of the increased competition.
In China and India, all students in grades seven, eight and nine are required to take mathematics, chemistry, physics, biology, geography, English literature and grammar, and world history. Once they reach the 10th grade, students are placed in a business, science or liberal arts track, based on their academic ability, where they continue to take advanced courses in science and math.
By contrast, in the United States, nearly 40 percent of high school students do not take any science class more challenging than general biology, and 55 percent do not take any math courses beyond two years of algebra and one year of geometry.