The National Center for Education Statistics today issued it “Report Card” on science education in the U.S., and broke their results down by participating states. The report indicates that Florida is not special at all when it comes to science. We’re buried deep in the middle of the pack.
Here’s a pdf document that summarizes the 4th grade results. Here’s a pdf document that summarizes the 8th grade results, which are rather ugly. A big 43% of our 8th graders are below basic level in science understanding. I bet it’s even worse in 12th grade, but that information is apparently not available yet. You can read the full national report (another pdf) here.
The St. Pete Times was quick to write up a story about the results. There are some great quotes in there, especially from our very own Florida Citizens for Science president, Joe Wolf:
The science results “bother me,” said Joe Wolfe, president of Florida Citizens for Science and a mathematician by training. “I’m afraid these scores show our system … is just not producing science students that have what is necessary to keep the country competitive.”
Paul Cottle, blogger over at Bridge to Tomorrow, was also quoted:
“We’re bringing in all these fancy biotech companies, and we’re importing these scientists and we’re training our students to make the beds for them,” said Paul Cottle, a Florida State University physicist who writes a blog on science education. “Nobody’s really taking this up. That’s the problem.”
…
Cottle, the physics professor, said the state needed to more aggressively pursue other changes, such as extra pay for science teachers, and even more professional development for them.
He pointed to the students in his physics classes: “The vast majority are poorly prepared in physics, and that limits what I can do,” he said. “We can produce more scientists and engineers at FSU if our students arrive here better prepared.”
The Orlando Sentinel story features Florida’s 2008 Teacher of the Year (and science teacher):
Richard Ellenburg, an Orange County science teacher, was on one of the committees that wrote the new standards. He said they are an improvement and will make a difference — but that it will take time.
“Are we farther along? I think in many ways we are,” he said, noting Florida was doing better than some other Southern states.
Science also begins with “foundational skills,” he said, so if the state’s fourth graders are grasping those then they will be better prepared for tougher aspects of science when they move to middle and then high school.
But Ellenburg, named Florida’s 2008 teacher of the year, said budget cuts in the past few years have undercut science education, as fewer elementary schools in his district can maintain science labs staffed with science teachers. That means students in some schools do not spend as much time on the subject.
“Inquiry-based science requires a lot of understanding and a lot of time,” he said.
“We’re doing an awful lot with very little,” he added, noting that middle and high schools also face the continual struggle of trying to attract science teachers when the private sector pays those with science degrees higher salaries.
