Archived: The Educational System in the United States: Case Study Findings

Introduction
As U.S. educators strive to improve the quality of public schooling through com-
prehensive reforms, international comparative studies have become increasingly
important. Recent studies indicate that U.S. students fare relatively poorly on
standardized tests of math and science, but little research has been conducted that
would enable educators to understand the complex nature of academic achieve-
ment within differing cultural contexts. Such studies are necessary in order to
interpret achievement outcomes as well as to provide a foundation for improve-
ment.
To address this need, the U.S. Department of Education contracted for case stud-
ies of education in the United States, Germany, and Japan as a complement to
the Third International Math and Science Study (TIMSS). The TIMSS study, con-
ducted in the spring of 1995, measured math and science achievement of 4th-,
8th- and 12th-grade students in 50 countries and collected questionnaire data from
the participants. The Case Study Project was designed to provide rich descriptions
of the academic and cultural contexts in three selected countries: the United
States, Germany, and Japan. This volume reports the results of the case studies
conducted in the United States.
The interviews and observations in each of three countries focused on four topics
of central concern to U.S. education officials: national standards in education,
teacher’s preparation and working lives, the role of school in adolescents’ lives,
and how individual differences in ability are addressed by the educational system.
The qualitative analyses that follow provide a context for interpreting the TIMSS
data.
Understanding math and science achievement in the United States is not an easy
task, particularly because of the diversity among students and the multiplicity of

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experiences within schools. For example, we observed 12th-graders in calculus
classes studying applications of number theory and other 12th-graders who were
enrolled in basic algebra. Moreover, a significant number of 12th-graders in the
United States are not enrolled in any math classes, having already fulfilled the
minimum high school requirements in their state. There are enormous differences
in schools, curricula, student preparation, and expectations of students that pre-
cludes simple descriptions of the nature of U.S. schooling. This study seeks to pro-
vide a window on this complex set of issues by providing a descriptive portrait
of selected aspects of the context of math and science achievement in the United
States.