The False Crisis in Science Education; October 1999; Scientific American Magazine; by Gibbs, Fox; 8 Page(s)

On a cold and rainy day this past February, Bruce Alberts wore a grim expression as he stepped up to the microphones at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. The final results of the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) had just come in, and America's high school seniors had placed near last.

"There is no excuse for this," President Bill Clinton had already chided. "These results are entirely unacceptable," admonished the secretary of education. The head of the National Education Association declared U.S. schools to be in a state of crisis. And now Alberts, president of the National Academy of Sciences, said that he, too, saw in this report "all the elements of an education tragedy."