数学和科学技能可大幅提高GDP

传统经济增长模型认为人们受教育的年限是衡量人力资本的重要指标，而人力资本是经济增长的一个重要要素。在这样一种假设下，在美国受的一年教育和在加纳受的一年教育对经济增长的贡献是一样的。刚刚发表的一项研究认为对经济增长来说最重要的是人们知道什么而不是人们坐在教室里多长时间。只有在通过数学和科学测验而提高学生的认知技能时，增加教育的年限才会带动经济增长。这项研究是由斯坦佛大学教授Eric Hanushek和慕尼黑大学教授Ludger Woessmann共同完成的。这项研究还计算出如果美国学生能够达到芬兰，香港和韩国学生的数学与科学水平，那么美国今天的经济增长会比现在高出两个百分点，到2015年会高出四点五个百分点。这项研究还表明并不是教育的投入越多，经济的产出就会越高。人力资源的数学和科学技能是大幅提高国民生产总值的重要因素。二零零八年三月三日的《华尔街日报》报道了这一研究成果。

Study Finds Sharp Math, Science Skills Help Expand Economy

By SARA MURRAY

Wall Street Journal
March 3, 2008

Increased years of education boost economic growth -- but only if students' cognitive skills, as measured by math and science tests, are improved as a result, a new study says.

The study, released in this spring's issue of Education Next, an education-policy journal, concluded that if the U.S. performed on par with the world's leaders in science and math, it would add about two-thirds of a percentage point to the gross domestic product, or the total value of goods and services produced in a nation, every year.

Those findings diverge from other research that links economic growth to the number of years of students' education. The problem with that research, say study authors Eric Hanushek, a Stanford University professor, and Ludger Woessmann of the University of Munich, is that it assumes that a year of schooling in a country like Ghana, for example, is equivalent to a year in the U.S. Instead, it is more important to emphasize "what people know, not how long people have sat in the classroom," Mr. Hanushek said.

"We've tried all kinds of things but they haven't been very effective. To me it says we just need to take this much more seriously."

Nearly two decades ago, the National Governors Association called for U.S. students to sharply improve in math and science by 2000. If the U.S. had managed to achieve the goal, and joined world leaders like Finland, Hong Kong and South Korea, GDP would be two percentage points higher today and 4.5 points higher in 2015, the study calculated. "Had we figured out some way to improve our schools, or do what we could to improve the learning of our students, we would be a lot better off today," said Mr. Hanushek.

The research supports the idea that students' performance defines the effectiveness of education. It raises questions about the U.S. approach, which focuses more on pouring resources into the front end -- such as spending money to reduce class sizes.

The U.S. "has had this very naive assumption that if you just pour more inputs into education then you'll get more output," said William Easterly, an economics professor at New York University who wasn't involved in the study. But he said it could be a leap to conclude that cognitive skills could yield a specific level of economic growth.

Because so many macroeconomic factors affect GDP, it is difficult to determine the precise impact of any one of them, he said. In the U.S., nearly every state develops its own curriculum, and while math curricula tend to be more standardized, science varies greatly. In some school districts, children rarely encounter science in elementary school, said Gerald Wheeler, executive director of the National Science Teachers Association, which is based in Arlington, Va.

Experts don't agree on how to improve students' performances. One suggestion is to create national standards for science and math designed by teachers, scientists and mathematicians, said William Schmidt, a Michigan State University education professor who works on international science testing. But, he said, those standards must be enforced in a way that doesn't encourage teachers to base classes on a test -- one of the criticisms of the No Child Left Behind law.