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6 Va. J. Soc. Pol'y & L. 47 (1998-1999)
School Choice: A Report Card

handle is hein.journals/vajsplw6 and id is 55 raw text is: SCHOOL CHOICE: A REPORT CARD Paul E. Peterson* INTRODUCTION The problems in American education are endemic. For example, compare math and science performance by students in the United States with that in other countries. The Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), reporting on tests administered in 1995 to half a million students in forty-one countries, compares the math performance of U.S. students in fourth, eighth, and twelfth grades with that of students abroad. Math tests are thought to be especially good indicators of school effectiveness, because math, unlike reading and language skills, is learned mainly in school. On the math tests, U.S. fourth graders scored passably well.1 The math test scores of U.S. eighth graders were another matter: the United States ranked below its major industrial peers. By the twelfth grade, the United States was all but last among all the participating countries.2 The longer U.S. students remain in school, it seems, the further behind they fall. * Henry Lee Shattuck Professor of Government and Director, Program on Education Policy and Governance, Harvard University. Professor Peterson is co-editor of Learning from School Choice (1998), from which this article is adapted. This article is published with the permission of the Brookings Institution. 1 U.S. 4th Graders Score Well in Math and Science Study, Education Week, June 18, 1997, at 22 (reporting that although the fourth graders trailed students in Japan, Korea, the Netherlands, and the Czech Republic, they did better than students in England, Nor- way, and New Zealand). 2 Helen F. Ladd, Holding Schools Accountable: Performance-Based Reform in Educa- tion 2-3 (Helen F. Ladd ed., 1996); U.S. Students Rank about Average in 41-Nation Math, Science Study, Education Week, Nov. 27, 1996, at 32 (recounting that the U.S. eighth graders clearly outscored only seven countries-Lithuania, Cyprus, Portugal, Iran, Kuwait, Colombia, and South Africa-none of them usually thought to be U.S. peers).

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