The vast majority of US students still lack a solid grasp of science, despite some modest gains by fourth and eighth graders, especially girls and minorities.
The problem is particularly acute among the nation’s high-school seniors.
Released yesterday, the US National Assessment of Educational Progress — which is often referred to as the nation’s report card — shows that only about one-third of fourth and eighth graders demonstrated strong academic performance in the sciences.
Among 12th graders, just one in five were “proficient” or better in science.
“We still are not at a place as a country where we are preparing the future STEM [science, technology, engineering and math] workforce that we need,” US Secretary of Education John King Jr said.
“We think there’s significant work still to do, but we are heartened by the progress that we see in these results,” he said.
Average scores on the science exam conducted last year for the report were up four points in grades four and eight, and unchanged for 12th grade, compared with 2009. The results showed that fourth-grade girls had closed the gender gap and were now performing as well as boys. In the eighth grade, that gender gap had tightened.
Achievement gaps between white, black and Hispanic students narrowed, too, at grades four and eight, as minority students made greater gains, said Peggy Carr, acting commissioner at the US National Center for Education Statistics.
Before the results were released, science teacher Lisa Hegdahl at McCaffrey Middle School in Galt, California, said her eighth-grade students have a huge interest in science, often wanting to continue their work outside the classroom.
“It’s great, because we were trying to show kids that science isn’t just about the classroom. It’s about the world you live in,” said Hegdahl, who is also president of the California Science Teachers’ Association.
“It’s about why that tree is growing. It’s why it’s making a shadow and why that shadow changes over time. It’s getting them to see the world a little bit differently and starting to be curious,” she said.
Nationally, the test results showed that 38 percent of fourth-grade students were considered proficient or above in science. In the eighth grade, 34 percent were proficient or above. Only 22 percent of 12th graders scored proficient or above. The rest were at or below the basic level.
At the state level, Arizona had the biggest gain for fourth graders, scoring 11 points higher on the exam compared with 2009. Tennessee and Georgia followed, each with an eight-point gain. In eighth grade, the winners were Utah and Tennessee, tied for first place with a nine-point gain, followed by South Carolina and Mississippi, which each had an eight-point score gain over 2009. State-level results were not available for the 12th grade.
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