Braintree, Mass. -- Conventional wisdom and popular perception hold that American students are falling further and further behind in science and math achievement. The statistics from this state tell a different story.

     If Massachusetts were a country, its eighth graders would rank second in the world in science, behind only Singapore, according to Timss — the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, which surveys knowledge and skills of fourth and eighth graders around the world. (The most recent version, in 2011, tested more than 600,000 students in 63 nations.)

There is severe mucoperiosteal thickening of the right frontal sinus with a bubbly appearance of sinus disease suggesting acute on chronic sinusitis. The left frontal sinus is clear. Severe disease is seen affecting the right anterior ethmoid air cells with near complete opacification of the anterior ethmoid sinuses and opacification of the right frontal recess. There is mild mucoperiosteal thickening of the left ethmoid air cells. The left frontal recess remains patent. There is mild right and moderate left sinus disease affecting the posterior ethmoid sinuses. The sphenoid sinuses are clear bilaterally. Mild polypoid mucosal thickening is seen in the left maxillary antrum. Mild mucosal thickening is seen in the right maxillary sinus. There is opacification of the right ostiomeatal unit The left ostiomeatal unit is patent  The mastoid air cells are clear. The osseous structures are othervvise intact There is minimal rightward nasal septal deviation anteriorly.

      The number of students who decide to attend a university and attempt outside employment has increased over the years, and now most students choose to work while attending school (Broadbridge & Swanson, 2005; Curtis, 2007; Holmes, 2008; Swanson, Broadbridge, & Karatzias, 2006). Reasons students work include: (a) opportunity, (b) previous employment experience, (c) necessity, and (d) worries about post-graduation loan repayment.

      Students work while going to school because there is an opportunity to do so. Jobs requiring manual skills have dissipated, and service jobs have become more prevalent. Many of these service jobs have extended hours, which affords great flexibility in the work schedule (Broadbridge & Swanson, 2005; Holmes, 2008).

Swanson, et al. (2006) suggested that some students work because they were employed through high school and are used to balancing employment and coursework. These students continue to work during college because extra income maintains a desirable lifestyle. Robotham (2009) found that as many as 38% of students said working helped uphold the quality of life they were accustomed to before attending a university.

      Some students require employment in order to provide for basic needs, such as rent and food (Curtis, 2007). Students who come from lower social classes were twice as likely to work when compared to their financially better-off peers (Callendar, 2008).

           The writers feel that college, in addition to knowledge, will increase intelligence by promoting socialization. This is done by giving individuals a place to reflect their thoughts and peers to share those thoughts with. The Director of American Studies at Columbia University, Andrew Delbanco, introduced the thought of “college as a place where young people encounter ideas and ideals from teachers, and debate them with peers.” He believes this information is not only taught, but learned through interaction: “students have something to learn not only from their teachers but also from each other.” Perhaps this is the reason that Menand believes “there is stuff that every adult ought to know, and college is the best delivery system for getting that stuff into people’s heads” - suggesting that when people are constantly being forced to learn new knowledge, the retain it. While human interaction is a main part of learning in college, time spent alone allows people to reflect on what they have learned. College is a place where people can, as University of Phoenix director says, “sit down and think” (qtd. in Delbanco).  

            Richard Freeland, former president of Northeastern University, introduces a different point with the way college socializes: he feels that, as students, “we free the mind from bias, that we cultivate rigorous thought, that we teach not only tolerance of difference but appreciation of diversity, and that we give our students the tools they need for a lifetime of intellectual adventure and social contribution.” Freeland believes that if we open our minds and attempt to learn, we will carry that information throughout our lives. College is the basis of “discovering that others see the world differently” (Delbanco). Due to increased diversity, students have to be taught “to interact with people different than themselves," (Kahlenberg) as well as a “tolerance of different but appreciation of diversity” (Freeland). This skill connects with Kahlenberg’s idea that even if it is not immediately relevant, it will be used and useful in their lifetime. 

“Reading skills are also valued by employers. A 2006 survey by the Conference Board, which conducts research for business leaders, found that nearly 90 percent of employers rated "reading comprehension" as "very important" for workers with bachelor's degrees. Department of Education statistics also show that those who score higher on reading tests tend to earn higher incomes” (Motoko).

“According to managers at packaged food company General Mills Inc., which hires roughly 50 M.B.A. graduates a year, business-school graduates are data-savvy but don't always communicate marketing research effectively.

 New M.B.A. hires ‘tend to talk about their analytical methods to show they are good at their jobs," says Angela Rassi, a marketing manager on General Mills' recruiting team. "What we really want to talk about are the implications of the research’” (Middleton)

“In a 2005 survey commissioned by the Washington-based National Association of Manufacturers, 84 percent of responding members said K-12 schools weren't doing a good job in preparing students for the workplace. Nearly half indicated their current employees had inadequate basic employability skills, such as attendance, timeliness, and work ethic. Forty-six percent reported inadequate problem-solving skills, and 36 percent pointed to insufficient reading, writing, and communication skills.

     Another poll last year sponsored by an influential Washington group, the Business Roundtable, found that 62 percent of the public thought public high schools were not doing a good job "adequately preparing graduates to meet the demands they will face in college and the world of work."

     But Michael J. Handel, an associate professor of sociology at Northeastern University in Boston, noted that while employers complain about the skills of young and high-school-educated workers, ‘it is unclear whether they are dissatisfied mainly with workers' cognitive skills or rather with their effort and attitude’” (Olson).

We cannot expect a government to say to children, “You are going to have to live in a world full of mass movements, both religious and political, mass ideas, mass cultures. Every hour of every day you will be deluged with ideas and opinions that are mass produced, and regurgitated, whose only real vitality comes from the power of the mob, slogans, pattern thinking. You are going to be pressured all through your life to join mass movements, and if you can resist this, you will be, every day, under pressure from various types of groups, often of your closest friends, to conform to them.

             “It will seem to you many times in your life that there is no point in holding out against these pressures, that you are not strong enough.

            ‘’But you are going to be taught how to examine these mass ideas, these apparently irresistible pressures, taught how to think for yourself, and to choose for yourself.

            “You will be taught to read history, so as to learn how short-lived ideas are, how apparently the most irresistible and persuasive ideas can, and do, vanish overnight. You will be taught how to read literature, which is the study of mankind by itself, so as to understand the development of people and peoples. Literature is a branch of anthropology, a branch of history; and we will make sure that you will know how to judge an idea from the point of view of long-term human memory. For literature and history are branches of human memory, recorded memory.

            “To these studies will be added those new branches of information, the young sciences of psychology, social psychology, sociology and so on, so that you may understand your own behavior, and the behavior of the group which will be, all your life, both your comfort and your enemy, both your support and your greatest temptation, since to disagree with your friends—you group animal—will always be painful.

            “You will be taught that no matter how much you have to conform outwardly—because the world you are going to live in often punishes unconformity with death—to keep your own being alive inwardly, your own judgment, your own thought.”

            Well, no, we cannot expect this kind of thing to be in the curriculum laid down by any state or government currently visible in the world. But parents may talk and teach like this, and certain schools may” (Lessing 74-6).