The United States scored much lower than other industrialized nations in higher math skills tests leading education officials to express concern over the ability to produce leading scientists and engineers in a globalized world.

The same officials, however, said the issue reaches beyond the education of students, saying elementary school teachers lack the ability to teach higher mathematics well.

"You can't teach what you don't know and your students won't love the subject unless you love the subject," Kenneth I. Gross, a University of Vermont mathematics and education professor, is quoted in Wednesday's Washington Post. (NYSE:WPO)

The National Math and Science Initiative and the National Science Foundation issued grants to educational institutions to develop better math and science teachers in response.

U.S. President George Bush launches a program in February to form an agenda to develop a strong foundation in mathematics and improve teacher training.

A student assessment test showed that 15-year-old students from the United States placed 24th behind students from other industrialized nations in mathematics and U.S. teachers lagged behind six other nations in tests for middle school math teachers.