{"id":2147,"date":"2014-06-19T09:00:27","date_gmt":"2014-06-19T13:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/?p=2147"},"modified":"2014-06-19T09:00:27","modified_gmt":"2014-06-19T13:00:27","slug":"its-been-downhill-ever-since","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2147","title":{"rendered":"It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been downhill ever since …"},"content":{"rendered":"

Florida State University physics professor Paul Cottle has an opinion piece in today’s Tallahassee Democrat: Science education takes a downward slide<\/a>. It might give some state Department of Education folks a bit of heartburn.<\/p>\n

A series of decisions at the state and district levels has eroded the dream of universal literacy in sciences. A student can now graduate from a Florida public or charter high school with no background in the Earth\/space and physical sciences at the high-school level. And some middle schools have altered their academic programs so that many of their students are never exposed to the concepts of force, motion and energy.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

It seems unlikely that Florida would explicitly delete science from the high-school graduation requirements, or drop the Science FCAT exams at the fifth- and eighth-grade levels. In the case of the FCAT Science exams, they are required by the federal No Child Left Behind law. One wonders whether that is all that is saving them.<\/p>\n

But what is more likely is that the implicit prioritization of science in the state\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s schools will continue to slowly decline, and the importance placed on high-quality science instruction will decline as well.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Florida State University physics professor Paul Cottle has an opinion piece in today’s Tallahassee Democrat: Science education takes a downward slide. It might give some state Department of Education folks a bit of heartburn. A series of decisions at the … 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-yD","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1168,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1168","url_meta":{"origin":2147,"position":0},"title":"We’re hosting a seminar!","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"February 28, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"The Florida Academy of Sciences is hosting its 74th Annual Meeting March 19-20 at Indian River State College, Fort Pierce. As part of that meeting, Florida Citizens for Science is proud to announce we are conducting a seminar: \"Attacks on Science, Science Education and Evolution\" is co-sponsored by the Florida\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1270,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1270","url_meta":{"origin":2147,"position":1},"title":"Florida Academy of Sciences opposes Wise’s bill","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"March 16, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The Florida Academy of Sciences has issued a position statement opposing Senator Stephen Wise's antievolution bill. A pdf of their position statement is here. Some excerpts from the Florida Academy of Sciences' statement: SB 1854, in effect, leaves the door open for the introduction in the public school curriculum of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "\"Critical Analysis\" bills '11"","block_context":{"text":"\"Critical Analysis\" bills '11","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=29"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1176,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1176","url_meta":{"origin":2147,"position":2},"title":"It’s coming!","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"March 15, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Our seminar, that is. The TCPalm was kind enough to publish a news release I sent them about our upcoming event on Saturday. FORT PIERCE \u00e2\u20ac\u201d A free seminar entitled \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Attacks on Science, Science Education and Evolution\u00e2\u20ac\u009d will be March 20. Florida Citizens for Science is conducting the seminar in\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1267,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1267","url_meta":{"origin":2147,"position":3},"title":"Press Release: 2011 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Critical Analysis\u00e2\u20ac\u009d bill","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"March 13, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Florida Citizens for Science Press Release: \"Critical Analysis\" bill harmful to Florida science education. Florida Citizens for Science opposes Senator Stephen Wise's recently filed bill -- SB 1854, Required Instruction in the Public Schools -- as it is clearly unnecessary, harmful to science education, and sends a negative message to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "\"Critical Analysis\" bills '11"","block_context":{"text":"\"Critical Analysis\" bills '11","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=29"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1057,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1057","url_meta":{"origin":2147,"position":4},"title":"What the professors said","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"June 2, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Following up on yesterday's post about Florida science professors wanting end-of-course tests rather than the 11th grade FCAT, here is the white paper they wrote and here is the list of folks who signed it. Below is the text of their statement: --------------------------- Graduation Requirements and Assessment Policy for High\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":192,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=192","url_meta":{"origin":2147,"position":5},"title":"FCS presents Science Standards draft","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"April 9, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Florida Citizens for Science is proud to present the culmination of months of very hard work: a draft of Science Standards for the state of Florida! You can find a pdf copy for download at http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/FCSstandards.pdf . Here is a portion of the introductory letter found in the standards that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Our Science Standards"","block_context":{"text":"Our Science Standards","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=7"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2147"}],"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=2147"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2147\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2148,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2147\/revisions\/2148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}