{"id":2771,"date":"2017-06-09T09:15:13","date_gmt":"2017-06-09T13:15:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/?p=2771"},"modified":"2017-06-12T11:10:46","modified_gmt":"2017-06-12T15:10:46","slug":"science-assessment-scores-remained-consistent-seriously","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2771","title":{"rendered":"Science assessment scores “remained consistent”? Seriously?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The results are in for the many mandatory statewide tests<\/a> Florida’s students take every year. Headlines in newspapers across the state emphasized language arts and math scores, which overall improved over last year’s results. That’s good news.<\/p>\n

But science? Here’s what the Florida Department of Education’s press release<\/a> announcing all of the results says about science:<\/p>\n

Compared to 2016, a higher percentage of Florida\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s students passed the statewide, standardized assessments in Civics and U.S. History while Science performance remained consistent<\/strong>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"f-school-letter-grade\"<\/a>That’s all, folks. The press release has a lot of analysis and stats about all of the other exams but a mere “remained consistent” statement about science. Of course, an official press release is going to put as positive a spin as possible on bad news. You have to expect that. But not one single newspaper or other media outlet that I could find said much more about science in their stories than the press release did. Unfortunately, that same pattern of ignoring science results has been going on for years. Let’s look at the numbers.<\/p>\n

Biology End of Course
\nStatewide Percentage Passing (Level 3 or Above)
\nSpring 2016-2017: 63
\nSpring 2015-2016: 64
\nSpring 2014-2015: 65
\nSpring 2013-2014: 68
\nSpring 2012-2013: 67
\nSpring 2011-2012: 59<\/p>\n

5th Grade Science Statewide Science Assessment (formally know as the science FCAT)
\nStatewide Percentage Passing (Level 3 or Above)
\n2017: 51
\n2016: 51
\n2015: 53
\n2014: 54
\n2013: 53
\n2012: 52<\/p>\n

8th Grade Science Statewide Science Assessment (formally know as the science FCAT)
\nStatewide Percentage Passing (Level 3 or Above)
\n2017: 48*
\n2016: 48*
\n2015: 48
\n2014: 49
\n2013: 47
\n2012: 47<\/p>\n

In 8th grade, 48\u00c2\u00a0percent of students taking the exam passed it. That means a full 52 percent — yes, more than half of all test takers — did not pass it this year. And that is the same result as the previous year. In 5th grade it’s not any better: 51 percent passed, meaning that nearly half did not pass. And the Biology end of course results have been slipping downward a bit year after year after year.<\/p>\n

No, I do not believe the science scores “remained consistent”! They remained dismal. They’re stagnant or falling. And everyone needs to stop sweeping that dirt under the rug.<\/p>\n

Does anyone care about Florida science education?<\/p>\n

(*FDOE started a year or two ago combining the 8th grade science assessment results with the results of 8th graders who instead took the Biology EOC. The combined statistic reported on most of the FDOE’s documents is 50 percent passing in 8th grade. But the pure\u00c2\u00a0Statewide Science Assessment results show a passing percentage of only 48. I highlighted this when I first noticed it in last year’s assessment results post<\/a>.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The results are in for the many mandatory statewide tests Florida’s students take every year. Headlines in newspapers across the state emphasized language arts and math scores, which overall improved over last year’s results. That’s good news. But science? Here’s … 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":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcZNLl-IH","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3486,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=3486","url_meta":{"origin":2771,"position":0},"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":2469,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2469","url_meta":{"origin":2771,"position":1},"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":3541,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=3541","url_meta":{"origin":2771,"position":2},"title":"Why isn\u2019t Florida government making science education a priority?","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"July 13, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"An op-ed I wrote was published in today's Orlando Sentinel. Press releases issued by the Florida Department of Education are always overflowing with good news. Everything is great. Student performance is always trending upward. Our state government is doing everything right when it comes to education. But the it\u2019s-always-sunny-in-Florida mantra\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3308,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=3308","url_meta":{"origin":2771,"position":3},"title":"Florida Science Tests: A move in the right direction but I still have questions","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"June 15, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"It took four years, but there is finally movement in the right direction for Florida\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s public school annual science assessments. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not much and it doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t prove anything (we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll need to see positive results for multiple consecutive years before we break out the confetti and noisemakers), but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a start.\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 2 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 2 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=3308#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2309,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2309","url_meta":{"origin":2771,"position":4},"title":"Statewide science scores … anyone out there actually care?","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"June 12, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Another year, another dismal performance on statewide science assessments here in Florida. Depending on grade level, students either took the science FCAT or Biology End of Course exam. Here's the results compared to previous years': Biology End of Course State Percentage Passing (Level 3 or Above) Spring 2014-2015: 65 Spring\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":1345,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1345","url_meta":{"origin":2771,"position":5},"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":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2771"}],"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=2771"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2771\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2782,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2771\/revisions\/2782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}