Last in the nation. That’s one of the “take home” points made in a slide show created by the Florida Department of Education and obtained by they Orlando Sentinel’s School Zone education blog. To see the 55-slide presentation, head over to the School Zone blog and click on the link there.
Slide #3 shows how ready Florida students are for college in the core academic subjects. Science is the short bar on the far right. Looks kinda pitiful next to those other subjects, doesn’t it?
State of Science Achievement in Florida starts on slide 29.
Slide 30 shows how Florida ranks in science achievement compared to other states using NAEP, ACT and AP assessments. Overall, Florida looks bad, espcially in the ACT where our state rank is 49. The next slide shows where Florida stands using the same assessments in the other core subjects. The contrast between science and the other subjects is striking.
Slide 33 shows just how dismal FCAT science scores are. Florida students are “less than 50% proficient at all three grade levels in 2009.”
Slide 37 compares percentages of students achieving level 5 (the highest level) on the FCAT in reading, math and science. Wow … just, wow!
And there it is on the last content slide: “Florida students are pretty much last in the nation for science.” We can only hope that the words “pretty much” won’t be removed from that sentence in the next few years.
Leslie at SchoolZone posted this site – lowering equivalencies for high school graduation using ACT or SAT equivalences…now for Math (if students fail 10th grade FCAT 3 times, substitution is allowed for a regular diploma):
Math – SAT – 370 (old) – 340 (new); ACT – 15 (remains the same)
And FCAT passing is “2” which is below grade level. This goes into effect for this year’s juniors.