making connections

I think this may be the first press release and/or news article (often one and the same thing, a little-known fact) to connect poor high school performance with what goes on in elementary school. Otoh, this article was published in 1998, so it's possible that the 'fourth-grade slump' meme has simply faded from view in the years since.

Penn State researchers think they know what is behind Johnny's and Janey's inability to do science and math, but Americans may not wish to make the changes that could improve performance.

"U.S. students, in general, show a drop in international rankings in math and science between the fourth and eight grades, which many educators and members of the press have called a slump," says Dr. Gerald K LeTendre, assistant professor of education. "Our studies indicate that this is not really a slump, but simply a continuation of low gains from year to year."

[snip]

"The initial reaction to our drop in ranking is to assume that our middle schools are at fault," says LeTendre. "But no one has looked at the overall trends," he told attendees today (Aug. 22) at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association.

"Most countries do not move up or down in ranking from fourth to eighth to 12th grade," says Baker. "The U.S. is one of the few that does."

The United States starts above the mean in fourth grade science and is at the mean in eighth grade. In math, we are again above the mean in fourth grade but below the mean by eighth grade. The researchers agree that on the surface this has all the indications of a slump. However, the survey sampled third and fourth grades and a grade comparison shows that the U.S. is already losing ground in third grade.

"Low gains between third and fourth, indicate this is not a middle school problem and it is not a slump, but indicative of a system-wide low level of achievement," says LeTendre.

The researchers note that it is not high performance in other countries that pushes U.S. scores down, but something the United States is doing, or not doing, in our education systems to create this mediocrity.

Sociologists of education have observed that known since the early 1900s educational systems in countries have become extremely similar over time, but little is known about how this might influence achievement cross-nationally. Our performances in math and science should all be similar, however, they are not.