Most Americans probably remember the political flap in Washington earlier this year about the proposed sale of a port security firm to a Middle Eastern subsidiary. Despite the fact that all day-to-day monitoring of U.S. facilities would still have been done by American citizens, the deal collapsed because too many people felt wary about relying on non-U.S. personnel to ensure security.
If current trends continue, however, this perspective will have to change. Many security-related jobs—from data analysis to cryptography—increasingly require the kinds of advanced math skills that American students aren't learning. Of the nearly 20,000 graduate students currently studying mathematics, almost 50 percent of them were born in countries other than the United States (Baker & Leak, 2006).
This raises the question: If Americans are so worried about relying on foreigners for their security, why are so few of them taking the kinds of math courses that will be needed to provide that security in the future?
Turning the Tide
Concerns about U.S. students' poor math scores are not new—but the increasingly vocal efforts being made to address the problem is. "I think there is a lot of lip service being paid to the fact that we, as a country, are falling behind in math," says Nancy Foote, a math teacher in Higley, Ariz. "It's not okay not to know math."
Other experts—including authors Harvey F. Silver and Richard W. Strong of the Thoughtful Education Press—agree. Knowing math not only opens career paths for students but also gives them the tools to make better decisions about their lives, if for no other reason than because it is involved in every life more than ever before.
- If you attend a sporting event or concert, your picture has likely been scanned using face-recognition software that reduces facial features to mathematical measurements—the distance between eyes, for example, or from the eyes to the nose and lips. This helps law enforcement officials improve security at crowded events.
- Companies now rely on datamining techniques that involve complex algorithms to analyze customers' purchasing patterns. This helps companies evaluate which products and features are most popular with consumers.
- Financial planners, bankers, and stockbrokers routinely use mathematical models to determine credit scores, default risks, and other day-to-day monetary measurements. These affect everything from students' credit card payments to their eventual auto and housing loans rates.
Put more simply, math will be involved in students' everyday lives more than ever before, and this means students must become familiar with it to succeed. "If we send an army of mathhaters out into today's competitive global culture, we are short-changing [and] severely limiting their chances of future success," Silver and Strong assert.
Moving Away from Math Avoidance
Although few would question that emphasizing math must begin in elementary school, teachers and principals at the high school level warn that this focus must be maintained to give students the best possible chances for success in their lives after schooling. Research has shown, for example, that an extra course in algebra or geometry can increase a student's earnings by 6.3 percent (Rose & Betts, 2001). Moreover, students who complete higher-level mathematics courses usually earn bachelor's degrees and, as a result, increase their earnings after college. "Students are [realizing] if they want better jobs and better opportunities, they need higher-level math," says John Bakelaar, assistant principal at Whitten Middle School in Jackson, Miss.
This belief of math's importance has not only reached the domain of politicians and school officials but even the entertainment world as well. CBS television's series, Numb3rs, for instance, chronicles the efforts of a pair of crime-fighting brothers, one of whom uses advanced mathematics to detect patterns and clues to help the duo capture lawbreakers. The show has actually become required viewing for many students, and teachers often use the material covered in different episodes in weekly lessons.
Lest there be any doubt about the growing popularity of math, consider this: The show was recently picked up for a third season.
