Difficulties with math proficiency.
The city spends the second-highest amount per pupil in the country, yet ranks bottom in maths and science proficiency for eighth-grade students (roughly, 14-year-olds).
In Sweden Jan Bjorklund, the education minister, is prepared for poor marks too.The triennial study by the OECD, a think-tank, measures the reading, maths and science proficiency of 15-year-olds.
A large majority of secondary school learners fail to reach proficiency in maths and science, and when compared to other nations in global tests, the maths and science achievements of South African learners at grade 3 were significantly below average.
The National Centre for Educational Statistics (NCES), a federal body, looked at how the states' definitions of "proficiency" at maths and reading compared with its own rigorous one.
In an international study in 2003 of young teenagers' proficiency in maths and science, South Africa came last of 50 countries.The most important statistic, however, concerns the colour of the students.
In Newark, which spends the most, 61% of the 11th-graders failed to achieve even basic proficiency in maths in 2005.Ironically, it is this intervention that has attracted free-market pro-voucher reformers.
The OECD (a Paris-based developed-country think-tank) has published its PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) studies of 15-year-olds' proficiency in reading, maths and science every three years since 1997.
Sure enough, teenage boys are 50% more likely than girls to fail to achieve basic proficiency in any of maths, reading and science (see chart 1).
America's young people are poorly educated, and now rank 20th or worse in international rankings of proficiency in science and maths.
