Here’s yet another story preparing folks for sinking school grades as a result of science counting on the FCAT and other factors. (Bold emphasis below is mine.)
After three years of preparation, the numbers show, Florida’s schoolchildren are still woefully unprepared in the sciences.
State education officials say privately that they are embarrassed by students’ shortcomings in science but publicly point to changes the Department of Education is making, including plans to building a math-and-science teacher-training institute.
“Americans are falling behind their global counterparts . . . we need to be sure to beef up expectations for science,” said Education Chancellor Cheri Yecke.
…
Florida’s students have been tested in science since 2003 on the FCAT, but the scores never counted toward the school grade.
The results have been dismal. Last year, for example, only 35 percent of juniors were proficient.
…
What also haunts educators is that the science test poses no consequences for 11th-graders.Teens must pass only reading and math, not science, to graduate, so there is no incentive for them to do well. But scores in all subjects count toward the school grade.
As a science teacher in middle school who has spent the last three years in the Science FCAT loop (my students don’t get tested on what they learn in 7th grade science until the following year in 8th grade) I have a couple of comments on the “dismal science grades”.
First you might ask who set the pass/ fail on this test? We have three years of raw scores. So you might think the state would look at the average scores and raise the bar to a point where some kids, some of whom have worked very hard for three years, would pass and some – perhaps fairly large portion would fail. Maybe make something just above the average score passing. Instead the passing score for this year has been set far above the average scores for last year. This really will encourage those kids who worked hard! If this were my class it has been set so I make a B passing and anything below that is failing. If I did that most of my students would fail! No wonder they call this approach to educations the “whips and chains” approach
Second. because of No Child left behind there has been little or no science taught in elementary school for many years. All they do is drill the kids in math and reading for the test. My carpool last year of 5th grade teachers has exactly 1 hour per week for science and social studies. Everything else is reading and math and math and reading. DOn’t even ask when our fufture citizens see a social studies lesson. They are even pulling them out of social studies in middle school so they can do more (guess what !) – reading and math! And now they want high science scores?