Math and Science Program Called Success

The National Science Foundation’s Math and Science Partnership continues to increase U.S. student proficiency, especially among elementary math students.

An analysis of 123 schools participating in the program shows overall improvements at the elementary, middle- and high-school levels during the project’s initial three years.

The most recent data, for 2004-05, show continued increases since the MSP program was established in 2002. Students showed the most significant improvements in mathematics proficiency, with a 13.7-percent increase for elementary level pupils, a 6.2-percent increase for middle-school students and a 17.1-percent increase for high-school students.

Science proficiency showed marked gains as well, with a 5.3-percent increase for elementary, 4.5-percent increase for middle-school and a 1.4-percent increase for high-school students.

The most dramatic increases were reported among elementary grade students in mathematics, where 7.2 percent more students achieved or exceeded proficiency from 2002 to 2004, followed by an increase of 6.5 percent from 2003 to 2005.

The project is expected to affect more than 141,000 science and mathematics teachers and 4.2 million students in 530 school districts.