todd2012's comments

I grew up in inner city Detroit, many years ago. It was terrible even then, and once I got out I never went back. I learned practically nothing in school and had to dodge violence everyday. I feel sorry for those that were never able to get away from there. (Class of '69 at Highland Park High School)

There are other possible reasons for the perceived math deficit. Factories like General Plastics may be seeing lower scores from job applicants because:

1) Racism 20 years ago may have prevented minorities from applying for jobs at these factories. Now, policies, attitudes, and the workplace environment may encourage more african americans or hispanics to apply for these jobs. The full NEAP reports make it clear that there is still a significant math performance gap between the overall population and whites. A broader pool of applicants, reflecting less racism today, will result in lower math performance. (This performance gap although significant is narrowing.)

2) Sexism 20 years ago could have precluded many women from applying for factory jobs. Now with more women applying, the performance gap in math between women and men may affect the average results seen on General Plastics tests. (Unfortunately, this performance gap hasn't narrowed over time.)

3) Improved opportunities for students from lower income families to go to college (because of student loan programs) may be causing the lower test scores at General Plastics. There is a significant performance gap in math and reading associated with family income, so it is more likely that students from lower income families apply for factory jobs rather than go to college today. Twenty years ago even the better performing students from low income families might not have been able to go to college because of the expense. Now, the better students from this pool will go to college (supported by student loans, etc.) changing the population that will be applying for factory jobs.

I'm not sure if any of these possibilities is true, but they are alternative hypotheses not considered by the article. Notice that each of these possibilites don't imply that things are getting worse, but that things are getting better (over a multi-decade time period--less racism, sexism, more opportunities).

Back when I was an MIT undergrad in the early 1970's I got a ride back to eastern New York for Thanksgiving or Christmas break with several other MIT students. That evening, the moon appeared very large, and I mentioned it was just an illusion. (I had read the July, 1962 issue of Scientific American growing up and knew about the illusion--it was the cover story.) Try as I might, I could not convince the others in the car that it was an illusion.