Few Students Show Proficiency in Science, Tests Show

[alp227]

Source: The New York Times

On the most recent nationwide science test, about a third of fourth graders and a fifth of high school seniors scored at or above the level the federal Department of Education calls proficient, according to resultsreleased on Tuesday.

Only one or two students out of every 100 displayed the level of science mastery that the department defines as advanced, the government said.

“I was rather dismayed at the relatively lackluster performance at the top of the achievement levels,” said Alan Friedman, a former chief executive of the New York Hall of Science who sits on the board that oversees the federal tests. “The fact that only one or two students out of 100 reach this level is disappointing and dangerous for our future.”

The science tests, known as the National Assessment of Education Progress, were administered in early 2009 to about 308,000 fourth and eighth graders and 11,000 12th-graders. They tested students’ knowledge and abilities in the physical sciences, life science and earth and space sciences, the government said.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/26/education/26test.html

---

Hmm, this is the nation where 40% of people believe in creationism, there've been efforts to creep creationism into public education via "intelligent design" following Edwards v. Aguillard SCOTUS decision from 1987, Big Oil interferes with climate change legislation and is buying politicians, there's an active anti-vaccination movement led by Jenny McCarthy and some doctors, and the anti-choice and anti-gay religious activists frequently spin or ignore real science to advance their agendas.

[ck4829]

1. Knowledge of the scientific theory is good for so many things

Hear about a product on TV? But no tests to back it up? It's probably a scam.

No doubt this is putting the wealthy and the corporations into a very pleased state.

[Fumesucker]

2. I wouldn't leave the politicians out of that pleased state..

Most of them are not well served by a scientifically literate populace either.

[Fire1]

3. Or reading and math, either. n/t

[Gregorian]

4. Our society hardly promotes patience. Math takes effort.

It can be done. But we're going to have to stop making bombs, and start making a good educational system. Although, school is only one facet. One other big part is family. And parents who are racing around trying to make mortgage payments on tiny salaries is hardly conducive to the proper atmosphere. I didn't have the internet when I was a kid. I do suppose that makes life a lot more difficult for a child to sit and do something less entertaining, like algebra.

It's just a matter of priority. Where is America's priority?

[damntexdem]

5. Meanwhile, the rest of the world will keep eating our lunch.

Even in the social sciences, some of the best students I see are international students.

[quaker bill]

7. But. who will win American Idol?

Would seem an appropriate answer to you question. My prediction is that it will not be a scientist. (I am a scientist)

[Gregorian]

9. I really could have used a Calculus channel when I was in school.

Instead, I blundered along by myself. I got a degree in mechanical engineering, but I could have mastered the subject instead of just getting a degree. Inventions aren't always the fruition of proficient students. But my guess is battery technology isn't going to come out of someone's garage. We really are shooting ourselves in the foot.

[Codeine]

13. Hell, half of DU doesn't think HS grads need to know algebra,

which is something you can easily teach sixth-graders. :crazy:

[Tesha]

35. The funny part is that, well-taught, it's often easier to teach higher math...

...such as algebra, geometry, and calculus than
it is to teach the ordinary mechanics of arithmetic;
even very young kids can pick up the basics of these
disciplines. It's the arithmetic that turns a lot
of folks off. And in an age of calculators and
computers, understanding higher math is probably
more useful than arithmetic.

Tesha

[social_critic]

44. I can't believe half of DU doesn't think HS grads need to know algebra.

I thought DU participants were brainy leftist intellectuals. I do see some with goofy ideas, but they're educated goofy ideas.

Where did you get this idea anyway? I taught my kids algebrea a lot earlier, and I'm teaching a young boy trigonometry while he's still in 5th grade. I have to confess I dressed it up, I'm having him work out the firing tables for a long range Nerf gun.

[Boojatta]

14. "I didn't have the internet when I was a kid."

I conclude that you didn't have access to free, online lectures about linear algebra:

http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/mathematics/18-06-linear-algebra-spring-2010/video-lectures/

[Gregorian]

17. Yes. That is good stuff. You've just punched a hole in my hypothesis.

And I'm glad. But it is a pet gripe of mine that tv hasn't been really used for educational purposes.

[ashling]

6. This just in: Virginia Foxx asserts that this perfprmance is terrible

vows to bring it down to 1/16 as chair of House Education Commiitee

:sarcasm::puke:
:sarcasm::puke:
:sarcasm::puke:
:sarcasm::puke:

[Sonoman]

8. Who needs science when we already have The Good Book.

All of those facts just get in the way.

Sonoman

[bluestateguy]

10. We have a few bad teachers in this country, a few dumb students and a lot of bad parents

nt

[Forkboy]

11. A third is what, 10%?

That ain't too bad.

[laconicsax]

23. !

:spray:

[Codeine]

12. This is quite starkly reflected in any DU thread involving a science topic.

:evilgrin:

[harmonicon]

18. NO SHIT!! (nt)

[Posteritatis]

41. "But why are we bombing the moon at night?"

God, the flashbacks...

[trekbiker]

15. Probably why most people in this country aren't horrified

about the close to 15 trillion in national debt. Most have no concept of a trillion dollars. I was talking to my girlfriend about this disaster that is the national debt and that most people have no concept of what a trillion dollars is and she was nodding her head in agreement. Then I asked her if she knew what a trillion dollars was. She replied, "more than a million?". Then I asked her how many millions were in a trillion dollars. She answered, "a hundred million?". chrissakes!!! my own girlfriend.... I was going to go into the whole subject of interest on the national debt but decided I better think of preserving my relationship.

I think most people's understanding and grasp of numbers stops at around one million.

[XemaSab]

30. I am inclined to agree

I think this is part of why people reject evolution and geology.

We can think about things a hundred years ago easily, we can think about things a thousand years ago with more trouble, ten thousand years is really stretching it, and a hundred thousand... I have no concept of what anything was like a hundred thousand years ago. It seems impossibly far back. A million, a hundred million, a billion... I've taken geology classes and I have a really hard time wrestling with numbers like that.

When they say that 466 million years ago, the Appalachian Mountains were higher and more impressive than the Himalayas are today, it's just impossible to take that seriously. I mean, you can think about it, and believe it, but it's "believing" in the sense that I "believe" that the great and powerful Wizard of Oz was really just a dude behind a curtain. I think about it in the corner of my brain where I think about fiction, ya know? I don't think about it in the corner of my brain where I think about airplanes or international trade.

To say to someone who is anti-evolution that the human line split off from the chimp line about 5 million years ago, I think part of their rejection of that idea is that 5 million seems like an impossible number. In terms of time it's hard to say if that's a lot of time, or not a lot of time. I think it also seems to diminish our own sense of self-importance to say that we are the 200,000th "human" generation, instead of the 240th.

Things to think about.

[PfcHammer]

16. Wuts on teevee tonight?

[intheflow]

19. Well thank god we've cut out all liberal arts education

in favor of math and science curriculum. Boy-howdy, is that strategy working!

:sarcasm:

[Bill McBlueState]

40. math and science are liberal arts...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_arts

[swilton]

20. Not surprising

Given the disinformation going on about evolution, global warming, etc. etc.

I personally think that the humanities are under-rated and technology is over-rated.....But as an academic I can attest to the ignorance willful or deliberate of college/high school students. It speaks to the undervaluing of teachers and academia in general in this country.

[XemaSab]

31. I think that both sciences and liberal arts are underrated

Both science and liberal arts are pelletized. You learn about the organs in the body, and you read "Catcher in the Rye," and then you're considered educated about the sciences and the liberal arts. There's no BIG PICTURE with either one.

I think everyone should know something about science, but not everyone is called to be a scientist.

I think that everyone IS called to know something about the liberal arts.

[Buzz Clik]

21. The lack of good science education in this country leads to a lot of insane notions, like:

1. Genetic engineering in crops is killing all of us.
2. The collapse of bee colonies is the result of something bad that people do (pesticides, GMOs, etc), but has nothing to do with the fact that only a single species of bee is used by bee keepers. Can you say "monoculture"?
3. It's better to have a world-wide ban on a chemical that might harm one in 10 million humans exposed to it but would save the lives of millions of humans by destroying disease vectoring insects.

There's a lot of ignorance out there.

[CanSocDem]

26. "Insane notions" like...

...the complete and utter infallibility of corporate science. Comprendez...???

.

[Buzz Clik]

28. "Corporate." Is that the progressive equivalent of "commie"?

[LanternWaste]

29. I think it's the equivalent of

I think it's the equivalent of "having sold out, adhering to profit motives over scientific ethics, etc..."

[Buzz Clik]

34. I've noticed that assigning such insults is seldom based on scientific facts.

That's the irony of this entire thread.

[boppers]

37. "Corporate science"?

Is that anything like corporate math, or corporate logic?

[Codeine]

38. This is the same person who states that

one can simply "believe" one's way to good health, and that if you're sick you've caused your own illness.

[sulphurdunn]

22. Interpretation of NAEP data

should not be made without consideration of the socio-economic conditions they reflect. An inverse correlations exists between poverty and academic achievement: the higher the rate of poverty, the lower the level of achievement. Schools with low poverty rates score high on achievement tests. Schools with high poverty rates score low on achievement tests. About 20% of American schools have high poverty rates: 75 to 100 percent of the students. There are about 100,000 public schools in the US, about the same percentage of kids who live in poverty, which much higher than any other developed country. This data is reflected in the test norm of the NAEP.

[laconicsax]

24. Illustrated daily pretty much anywhere you look.

One need not look hard to see complete ignorance of basic chemisty, biology, physics, geography, etc.

One possible solution:


http://www.smbc-comics.com/

[Art_from_Ark]

25. When I was in 4th grade, I had no idea what science was

apart from what I read about scientists in "Weekly Reader".

When I was in 8th grade, I did poorly in science because I couldn't remember scientific names of microbes and wasn't particularly interested in dissecting frogs or learning the parts of a worm, among other things.

When I was in 12th grade, I wouldn't have passed more than a basic biology test.

Today, part of my work requires a knowledge of science, a knowledge which I acquired after I graduated from high school.

[RainDog]

27. Part of the Reagan legacy

He's the idiot who, as president of the U.S. demonstrated such a deep level of stupidity about the meaning of "theory" in science, as opposed to politics, for instance, that he energized an entire generation of stupidity whose crowning achievement is the Creation Museum in KY.

[woo me with science]

32. The Famous DU Moon Bombing Thread.

Exhibit A

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x6712126

[Nihil]

33. I'd forgotten that ... ye gods ...

:rofl:

[Codeine]

39. DU's finest moment.

It really didn't get any better than the series of threads that subject spawned.

[boppers]

43. Wow, glad I missed it the first time around.

Also glad I could see it much later. :D

[Sancho]

36. My first teaching certificate was in science...

my wife is in her 33 year of teaching, but I left teaching public schools 25 years ago. I enjoyed teaching middle school and high school science despite the poor conditions and lack of equipment. A local administrator removed my science library volume on Evolution after school.

You can't make a good living teaching in most public schools - and it's certainly not competitive for science and math majors. My first year out of college I got an offer from an energy company for double the salary (which I didn't accept.)

Then I worked part time for a local doctor's office at almost three times the teaching rate. Science and math graduates today; even elementary education majors with math or science concentrations simply don't teach. Over half aren't teaching within three years.

I can see why! Even with over 3 decades experience and five degrees, my wife makes much less than me, and she gets about the same as a new graduate in high tech fields. When we were first starting, she worked as a tutor and other second jobs.

Science and math education takes good teachers, and there are very few willing to make a career out of it. It's not worth the low pay and BS when you can make a better living elsewhere.

[struggle4progress]

42. Maybe they need to wear copper bracelets and put magnets in their hats while taking tests?

:shrug:

Or maybe they need science courses that actually have them play with cool stuff to see what happens, instead of just memorizing isolated factoids for the next test