Why US Math, Science Ed is OK

Americans aren’t as deficient at math and science as usually reported, writes entrepreneur and Harvard Law Fellow Vivek Wadhwa in a Business Week op-ed. He cites an Urban Institute report with results contradicting many long-held beliefs about American science education, which places American science students consistently second in the world.

The report also says that high school students took more math and science credits from 1982 to 1998 and that math scores on national tests went up. Wadhwa doesn’t say if sciences scores rose, nor does he address grade inflation. He claims that industrial complaints of science worker shortages are actually “short-term shortages of engineers with specific technical skills.” (More science stories.)