SMC What Recommendations Would You Make for American Schools Discussion

Use the sites listed below to answer the prompt.

• The site of the National Center for Education Statistics, a government effort to collect and analyze data about education in the United States and other nations: https://nces.ed.gov/
• Access to ERIC, the comprehensive collection of research and ideas about all facets of education: https://eric.ed.gov
• Site of Education Week on the Web, a weekly journal with news, evaluation, and analyses of various aspects of education: http://www.edweek.org/
• Links to an external site.

• • Hint: Though informative, the site is less likely to offer data and/or academic sources

**Prompt**

i.) The text points out that American elementary and high school students do not score as high on tests of math and science as do students in many other nations.

• Find information on math and/or science in Japan or one of the European nations.
  • Hint: Search for ‘comparative studies ‘ and/or ‘math scores,’ ‘science scores,’ ‘educational attainment,’ etc.
• What are they doing that can help explain the higher scores?
• What recommendations would you make for American schools to close the gap in the scores?
  • Explain your answer(s) and cite sources properly.
• Based on your comparisons, what do you think could improve educational success rates among Americans compared to these other nations? And why?
  • Comparatively, what do you think is missing from your educational experiences?