While US students are doing OK in science and maths they lag behind counterparts in Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan and Japan, according to a new report (pdf). The report claims to be the first t compare 8th-grade students (13–14 years old) with their future competitors around the world.

“More than a century ago Louis Pasteur revealed the secret to invention and innovation when he said ‘chance favours the prepared mind’. The take away message from this report is that the United States is loosing the race to prepare the minds of the future generation,” said report author Gary Phillips, a chief scientist at the wonderfully named American Institutes for Research, a social science non-profit (press release).

Here’s the top ten for national mean achievement level on the 2003 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study data that the report uses.

“It shows we’re not doing as badly as some say. We’re in the top half of the table, and a number of states are outperforming the majority of the nations in the study. But our performance in math and science lags behind that of the front-running Asian nations,” said Thomas Toch, co-director of Education Sector, an independent policy group not related to the report (NY Times).

As ever, the way this is being covered is telling. The NY Times starts with the positives; even Alabama is better than Italy and Norway, it says, before admitting that Singapore whups even Massachusetts. USA Today thinks the report’s conclusions mean “it’s not pretty” for US students, and it quotes a truism from the report author:

“We’re kind of in the middle of the pack. Being in the middle of the pack is really a mediocre place to be.”

In Ohio the Columbus Dispatch isn’t impressed with its students’ performance, while the Chicago Tribune highlights the fact that Illinois scores “compare favourably with the world”. Likewise, the Salt Lake Tribune goes with “Utah students fare well in international report”