{"id":2325,"date":"2015-06-24T14:26:02","date_gmt":"2015-06-24T18:26:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/?p=2325"},"modified":"2015-06-24T14:26:02","modified_gmt":"2015-06-24T18:26:02","slug":"the-conversation-about-science-has-started-but-will-it-continue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2325","title":{"rendered":"The conversation about science has started but will it continue?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"EOC-Picture\"<\/a>I encourage you to see for yourself what Mr. Padget and Ms. Stewart had to say about science scores (see my previous post on this<\/a>). The video from the meeting is available here<\/a>. Mr. Padget’s comments on science start at about 12:07. Ms. Stewart’s comments on science are at about 38:48.<\/p>\n

I appreciate that they both acknowledge that there is a problem that needs attention. But in typical fashion, Ms. Stewart didn’t linger very long on the low scores, preferring to focus on some bright spots in the sub-categories. And both Ms. Stewart and Mr. Padget neglected to tell the whole story. Stewart said that the passing rate for the biology EOC exams are six percentage points higher than in 2012. True. However, look at the annual break down:<\/p>\n

Biology End of Course
\nState Percentage Passing (Level 3 or Above)
\nSpring 2014-2015: 65
\nSpring 2013-2014: 68
\nSpring 2012-2013: 67
\nSpring 2011-2012: 59<\/p>\n

The big leap in scores came between the first and second years, 59 percent to 67 percent, which is a nice eight point jump. But then the following year the increase was only by one point. And this year there was a big drop off of three points. There was one really nice year and everything else since has been a disappointment.<\/p>\n

They also acknowledged the stagnant science FCAT scores. But just barely. Most of the comments were about the biology EOC. Here’s the FCAT break down:<\/p>\n

5th Grade Science FCAT
\nState Percentage Passing (Level 3 or Above)
\n2015: 53
\n2014: 54
\n2013: 53
\n2012: 52<\/p>\n

8th Grade Science FCAT
\nState Percentage Passing (Level 3 or Above)
\n2015: 48
\n2014: 49
\n2013: 47
\n2012: 47<\/p>\n

Once again, I appreciate that Mr. Padget brought up the subject and that Ms. Stewart said “We know there’s work to do.” Hopefully, any proposed solutions won’t get derailed or forgotten when the other exam results (the set of FSAs) are released.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I encourage you to see for yourself what Mr. Padget and Ms. Stewart had to say about science scores (see my previous post on this). The video from the meeting is available here. Mr. Padget’s comments on science start at … 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-Bv","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2322,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2322","url_meta":{"origin":2325,"position":0},"title":"Wow. Someone noticed.","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"June 24, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm genuinely amazed. Someone with some authority took notice of statewide science scores. But will that translate into action? Orlando Sentinel School Zone blog: State board member worries about declining science scores \"These are not new tests. They are tests the system is used to,\" State Board of Education John\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1907,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1907","url_meta":{"origin":2325,"position":1},"title":"Padget comments on science standards","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"June 20, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm very late to the party. The Gradebook, School Zone and Bridge to Tomorrow already posted about Florida Board of Education member John Padget's recent comments about the state's science standards. Here's the video clip:","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":26,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=26","url_meta":{"origin":2325,"position":2},"title":"Can our teachers rely on the science standards?","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"June 27, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Florida's public school science standards are not in need of a tweak or pretty makeover. They need to be overhauled. The Thomas B. Fordham Institute gave Florida an ugly ol' F for its science standards. In part, the review says: Life sciences and evolution are given shorter shrift than any\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":[]},{"id":1036,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1036","url_meta":{"origin":2325,"position":3},"title":"New BoE member","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"May 13, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Governor Crist announced a new appointment to the state Board of Education today. John R. Padget, 72, of Key West, self-employed private equity investor and philanthropist, succeeding Phoebe Raulerson, appointed for a term beginning May 13, 2009, and ending December 31, 2012. Padget is a former superintendent of schools for\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2469,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2469","url_meta":{"origin":2325,"position":4},"title":"DOE: Just fudge the results; no one cares about science anyway","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"June 11, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"The Florida Department of Education released the results of statewide assessments yesterday. Unfortunately, there is a potential fib about the science results in the DOE's news release: Tallahassee, Fla., June 10 2016 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Commissioner of Education Pam Stewart today announced that Florida students are improving their performance on state assessments\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2469#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1242,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1242","url_meta":{"origin":2325,"position":5},"title":"Three in the news","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"January 2, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"There were a few articles in the news recently featuring your very own Florida Citizens for Science folks! Joe Meert is in the news for his science work: Discovery by UF geologist rekindles debate on origins of multi-cellular life A recent discovery by a University of Florida geologist may lend\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 2 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 2 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1242#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2325"}],"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=2325"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2325\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2327,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2325\/revisions\/2327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}