Declining Math Proficiency in the United States Poses Threat to Global Competitiveness

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Kevin Tran, a 17-year-old high school student, has a unique appreciation for superheroes, a fascination that stems from their intellectual prowess. “They are invariably brilliant—engineers, scientists—and you can’t achieve that without mathematical proficiency,” Tran observes.

During the summer, Tran dedicated five hours a day to studying calculus through a program at Northeastern University. Unfortunately, his enthusiasm for the subject is not widely shared among Americans. The dismal state of math scores on standardized tests across the United States reveals an alarming decline.

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Business leaders assert that America’s waning aptitude for math is not just a concern for humor but a critical issue affecting the nation’s global economic standing and national security. Jim Stigler, a psychology professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, who focuses on educational processes, warns, “The technological advancements that will shape the world in the next half-century are likely to emerge from countries other than the United States due to their intellectual capital.”

The Department of Defense has launched significant initiatives to bolster education in the STEM fields—Science, Technology, Education, and Math—highlighting that China and Russia far outpace the United States in producing college graduates in these disciplines.

Various media outlets, united in the Education Reporting Collaborative, are documenting this math crisis. Josh Wyner, vice president of The Aspen Institute think tank, notes, “Solving the grand challenges of our time necessitates mathematical understanding.”

Statistics from the Bureau of Labor Statistics indicate that job openings in math-intensive fields are expected to increase by more than 30,000 annually through the end of the decade. Michael Allen, Chair of the Math Department at Tennessee Technological University, emphasizes, “Almost every career nowadays incorporates mathematics.”

However, the majority of American students are ill-prepared for such roles. According to international assessments like the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), U.S. students lag behind 36 other educational systems globally in math, with Chinese students leading the pack. The National Science and Technology Council states that only one-fifth of U.S. high school students aiming for college are prepared for STEM coursework.

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Consequently, international students are dominating STEM fields in American higher education. A Stanford economist predicts that current students could potentially earn significantly less than their pre-pandemic peers if this math decline isn’t addressed, impacting the nation’s overall economic health.

Edward Lambert Jr., executive director of the Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education, points out that the state alone anticipates a shortage of 11,000 life sciences workers in the next five years. “We’re failing to channel students, especially those from underprivileged backgrounds, into math-related career paths early enough to maintain our competitive edge,” he states.

The Bridge to Calculus program at Northeastern University, where Tran spent his summer, represents one solution. Participants are compensated $15 an hour for their efforts in learning coding, data analytics, and basic electrical engineering.

For American students who do embrace math, such as Steven Ramos, Wintana Tewolde, and Peter St. Louis-Severe, the rewards are intrinsic. “It’s challenging but ultimately fulfilling when you grasp the concepts,” says Tewolde.

Despite this, Todd Thibodeaux, President and CEO of CompTIA, argues that America’s edge lies in its unique focus on creativity and problem-solving skills, which are also valued globally.

Nevertheless, as students tackle advanced polynomial functions in class and come up with correct solutions, their success echoes the phrase coined by their instructor, Jeremy Howland: “Bada-bing.”

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The education team of The Big Big News receives support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The content is exclusively the responsibility of the AP.

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More about Declining math proficiency in the United States

• Bureau of Labor Statistics: Job Outlook in STEM Fields
• Department of Defense: STEM Education Initiatives
• National Science and Technology Council: STEM Preparedness Report
• Education Reporting Collaborative: Math Crisis in America
• The Aspen Institute: Technological Dominance and Global Competitiveness
• Program for International Student Assessment: PISA Math Scores by Country
• National Foundation for American Policy: International Students in U.S. STEM Programs
• Stanford Economics: Impact of Math Decline on Future Earnings
• Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education: Workforce Shortages in Life Sciences
• CompTIA: Importance of Creativity in Technology Fields