For more than 30 years, the United States has been concerned about the performance of their students in relation to their international peers.  Since the appearance of Sputnik in the late 1950s, national leaders and educators have focused on the importance of helping U.S. students stay internationally competitive in mathematics. In 1964, the First International Mathematics Study was conducted, which gave us the first set of data as to how poorly the U.S. was performing in comparison to other leading industrialized countries.  Almost twenty years later a second study was conducted, and about fifteen years after the second study came the third.  All three of these international studies have shown the same results; the U.S. was not performing as well as their international competitors.  The results of this study have caused Americans to question their approach to the teaching of mathematics.

 

In this document I will be comparing the educational systems of the United States, France, and Japan.  The reason for selecting these two countries in my comparison was that both countries out-performed the U.S. in all math subject areas on all three of the international studies conducted.  I intend on identifying ways that the U.S. could improve their curriculum and procedures based on the information I have gathered on these two other countries.