Now more than ever, knowledge of mathematics and science is a gateway to individual opportunity and national prosperity. Our nation's technical talent pool is its most precious economic asset—the key to generating high-wage jobs, addressing domestic social issues and competing internationally.

We share the view of many Americans that our nation is not developing the human resource base needed to sustain current U.S. economic strength. The weakness of K-12 math and science education is the greatest threat to America's long-term economic future.

This concern has been documented by the results of the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), as shown in the graph below. This large-scale, comprehensive global study—conducted in 1994-1995—compared the mathematics and science performance of students in grades 4, 8 and 12 in 42 countries worldwide. The startling result was that U.S. students who scored above average in math and science in 4th grade were near or at the bottom by the 12th, compared to other countries. That is, TIMSS showed that U.S. students do progressively worse as they advance through the grades when compared to the rest of the world.*

This central challenge prompted the Council on Competitiveness to act. The idea for Getsmarter.org came from Al Berkeley, Vice-Chairman of The Nasdaq Stock Market. The goal, which has been realized on this web site, was to give K-12 students a voluntary, no-risk opportunity to assess their own academic achievement, compare themselves to students around the world and enhance their learning.

This is important because parents, teachers and employers want to know what students' grades mean. It seems that there is a great degree of variability in grading. Right now, B- in one classroom doesn't mean the same thing as a B- in another classroom in the same school, not to mention a different school, different town, different state or different country! Look at these results from high schools in the same county in Maryland.

With Getsmarter.org, students, parents, educators, business leaders and all that use the web site can see how the math and science skills of U.S. students measure up against others worldwide. This can be done freely and voluntarily—all with no risk. The assessments on Getsmarter.org allow anyone to compare performance on a uniform basis, universally. This gives all users a shared base of comparison, where a score of 55% on the Getsmarter.org math quiz in Buffalo, NY means the same as a score of 55% in Washington, DC, Madrid, Tokyo, Lima, Johannesburg or anywhere in the world!

In addition to self-assessment, Getsmarter.org provides tools for learning and self-improvement. We provide practice opportunities, hints and links to tutorial sites so that students can see where they stand and access resources to help them do better. For high school students, MSTV (Math & Science Television) excites visitors about math and science by giving interactive, real-world examples of why the subjects are so important in their daily lives.

* The Third International Mathematics and Science Study - Repeat (TIMSS-R) collected data in 38 countries at the eighth-grade level to provide information about changes in the mathematics and science achievement of U.S. students compared to other countries over the last four years since the TIMSS study. With the results released in December 2000, TIMSS-R confirms the conclusions of the previous TIMSS. Namely, that U.S. students are making little progress in competing with their peers globally in math and science achievement. [Back]