One of the top performers, Singapore, boasts a very different approach towards mathematics education: "While a single lesson in a U.S. textbook might span two pages and take one class period to go through, a lesson in a Singapore textbook might use five to ten pages and take several days to complete. The Singapore texts contain no narrative explanation of how a procedure or concept works; instead, there are problems and questions accompanied by pictures that provide hints about what is going on" (Garelick 2006: 1). However, an attempt to adapt such an approach in one Montgomery, Alabama school suburban district was abandoned, as it was feared that introducing new methods of teaching math within districts might make it difficult for students to meet state standards on standardized tests at the end of the year. True, many Asian nations such as Korea also have national science and math educations and frequent national assessments. This is in stark contrast to the local control that is a feature of American schools. Standardized assessment itself might not be to blame -- only the fact that it can be difficult to meet such standards without a national curriculum. While there may be a desire in the hearts of parents to see their children succeed, there is also a corresponding resistance to giving up local curricular control (Park 540). Varying levels of funding between districts can also create wide disparities in the quality of student education, and access to supplemental resource material like labs, further making meeting national or even state standards difficult. Furthermore, parents desire to see evidence of results on standardized tests, which can be difficult to accomplish during a transition period to a more experiential or conceptual curriculum.

To some extent, teachers have also been...

For example, teacher's reliance upon textbooks creates a sense that scientific facts are unquestioned, and deemphasize empirical learning (Park 540-541). The absence of a national curriculum means that how children learn varies greatly, yet the increased demand for accountability through frequent national standardized assessment limits curricular innovation on the part of teachers, as more conceptual learning may be more time-consuming and take longer to show immediate results -- additionally, current educators may not be familiar in the ways to teach such subjects. When contemplating educational reform in math and science, America seems to be caught in a paradox -- America demands quick, demonstrable improvement but is unwilling to relinquish local control, current testing standards, or different ways to fund and teach scientific and mathematical concepts.
Works Cited

Adams, Cecil. (1999). "What exactly was the 'new math'?" The Straight Dope. Retrieved 28 Jul 2007 at http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mnewmath.html

Blosser, Patricia E. (1989). "The Impact of Educational Reform on Science Education."

ERIC/SMEAC Science Education Digest. No. 4. Retrieved 28 Jul 2007 at http://www.ericdigests.org/pre-9215/impact.htm

Garelick, Barry. (Fall2006). "Miracle math: a successful program from Singapore tests the limits of school reform in the suburbs." Education Next. Retrieved 28 Jul 2007 at http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0MJG/is_4_6/ai_n16832469

Park, Do-Young. "Differences between standards-based and traditional education in high school earth science." Dept. Of Curriculum and Instruction, Illinois State University. Retrieved 28 Jul 2007 http://www.nagt.org/files/nagt/jge/abstracts/park-v53n5.pdf