New York students trail their counterparts in several Asian countries and Russia on math tests — and their competitiveness on science exams is even worse.
A recent report by the US government’s National Center on Education Statistics ranked eighth-graders in the Empire State only No. 17 among states and countries studied, with an average math score of 529 on a scale of 0 to 1,000.
Leading the list is South Korea, where students scored an average 613, followed by Singapore, Taipei, Hong Kong and Japan.
Russia ranked No. 11, with an average test score of 539.
Nine American states also beat out New York, including Massachusetts, which led the nation with an average score of 561, based on 2011 test results.
Meanwhile, New York’s eighth-graders scored a slightly higher average 538 on science tests, but lagged even farther behind other students worldwide, placing 28th overall.
The No. 1 spot in science education was grabbed by Singapore, which notched an average score of 590, while Massachusetts students again led the nation and placed second overall, with an average test score of 567.
Two major emerging nations — China and India — weren’t included in the rankings, which were compiled by analyzing the results of standardized tests administered in the United States, 38 other countries and nine “subnational” education systems.
The special study, released in October, was produced by comparing findings from the National Assessment of Educational Progress — also known as the “Nation’s Report Card” — with those of the “Trends in International Mathematics and Science” Study.
The TIMSS report includes results from the United States but doesn’t break them down by state, so the feds extrapolated test scores from the Nation’s Report Card to predict how students in each state would perform on the TIMMS tests.
Education-reform expert Chester Finn Jr., president of the conservative Thomas B. Fordham Institute, said the results from Massachusetts were “an encouraging signal,” saying the Bay State “has done well because it took its academic standards and implementation seriously.”
“The takeaway is that it’s possible for an American state to do as well as an Asian tiger on these sorts of standardized tests, but unfortunately, very few American states have pulled that off,” Finn said.
“New York is among the states that have not, although it’s not at the bottom of the barrel.”
Finn said an analysis by his Washington, DC, think tank concluded that New York would benefit from the national “Common Core” educational standards adopted in 2010 but currently under fire from officials, including Gov. Cuomo.
Another recent report, by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development — which used different tests to rank American students 26th in math and 21st in science out of 34 member countries — also concluded that “successful implementation of the Common Core standards would yield significant performance gains.”