{"id":1191,"date":"2010-05-28T09:11:06","date_gmt":"2010-05-28T13:11:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/?p=1191"},"modified":"2010-05-28T09:11:06","modified_gmt":"2010-05-28T13:11:06","slug":"florida-isnt-alone-in-science-testing-woes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1191","title":{"rendered":"Florida isn’t alone in science testing woes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here is an interesting article <\/a>about Massachusetts high school students failing required science exams needed for graduation. If I’m reading the story and associated graphic correctly, more students failed science than either math or English, resulting in no diploma. I admit I know nothing about Massachusetts’ science test and requirements, but the story made it sound like passing the science requirement shouldn’t be all that hard:<\/p>\n

The state gives science exams in biology, chemistry, physics, and technology\/engineering as part of its Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System, which was created under the 1993 Education Reform Act. Students can start taking the science exams as freshmen and have to score at least \u00e2\u20ac\u0153needs improvement,\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 the second lowest of the four scoring categories, on at least one of the subjects.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And there is the familiar lament that science teachers are hard to come by:<\/p>\n

But some educators and school advocates say requiring that students pass a science test for graduation goes too far. Some students, they say, are not adept at the sciences, and some schools struggle to offer rigorous science programs because of difficulty in finding qualified teachers or a lack of modern science labs and other resources.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here is an interesting article about Massachusetts high school students failing required science exams needed for graduation. If I’m reading the story and associated graphic correctly, more students failed science than either math or English, resulting in no diploma. I … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcZNLl-jd","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1345,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1345","url_meta":{"origin":1191,"position":0},"title":"Science FCAT 2011","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"June 6, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Results for Florida\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s annual science exams taken by 3rd, 8th, and 11th graders were released today. The good news? Scores overall improved since last year. The bad news? The rise in scores is small, and 50 percent of our state\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s students aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t proficient in science. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m tired of being a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "FCAT"","block_context":{"text":"FCAT","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=22"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3486,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=3486","url_meta":{"origin":1191,"position":1},"title":"A decade later and science education is still not important to Florida’s leaders","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"July 1, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Friday was the big day! The results for the annual statewide education assessments were released. A press release from Commissioner of Education Richard Corcoran's office celebrated score increases in English Language Arts, Mathematics, Social Studies and Biology. He praised \"awe-inspiring\" teachers and he highlighted a new law that pushed all\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1656,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1656","url_meta":{"origin":1191,"position":2},"title":"And what about science education?","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"August 21, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"I would quote the parts related to science education in this story about Florida using national standards and tougher tests ... but there ARE NONE: FCAT to be retired, replaced by more and tougher exams. Bridge to Tomorrow is noticing the same thing. \"That is, Florida\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s students will be competing\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1201,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1201","url_meta":{"origin":1191,"position":3},"title":"2010 Science FCAT and beyond","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"June 29, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"The annual Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test results are finally released. These are exams that students across the state in specific grade levels must take in core subjects. These scores can influence students\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 promotion to the next grade, and dictate what the student can or cannot take the next school year,\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 3 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 3 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1201#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":349,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=349","url_meta":{"origin":1191,"position":4},"title":"Evolution: it’s on the test. Someone should tell the school board members!","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"December 12, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"The Northwest Florida Daily News published a story about evolution in the new draft of the state science standards. (Make sure to click through all three pages of it.) There are a lot of positive, reasonable quotes in the story, such as: Evolution is already tested on the ACT and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "In the News"","block_context":{"text":"In the News","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1113,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1113","url_meta":{"origin":1191,"position":5},"title":"Update on Two chances to speak your mind","author":"Jonathan Smith","date":"September 3, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00c2\u00a0John Legg, Chair of the Florida House of Representatives PreK-12 Policy Committee, answered questions on a \"live chat\" show on the St Pete Times\u00c2\u00a0GradeBook blog yesterday. One of the questions was presented on behalf of Paul Cottle\u00c2\u00a0a FSU professor and friend of FCS. Here is Leggs response. Question: Here's a\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 2 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 2 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1113#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1191"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1191"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1191\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}