"Urban Students Do Worse than Nation in Science" Associated Press
"Most Students in Big Cities Lag Badly in Basic Science" New York Times
"Boston Students Found to Lag in Basic Science Concepts; U.S. Test Reports on Shortcomings in 4th, 8th Grades" Boston Globe
“Urban
Students Do Worse than Nation in Science”
The Associated Press State & Local Wire by Nancy Zuckerbrod
Children in major U.S. cities perform worse than other students around the country
on science tests given in elementary and middle school, a snapshot released
by the government shows.
Ten urban school districts volunteered to take the tests and have their scores
compared to public school students nationwide for the first time.
Fourth-graders in nine of the 10 city districts had lower average scores than
public school students nationally. The only exception was Austin, Texas, where
they performed at the national average. In eighth grade, all 10 urban districts
had average scores below the national average.
The science scores are from the 2005 National Assessment of Educational Progress,
a test given nationwide periodically on a range of subjects. It is viewed as
the best way to compare student achievement across state and district lines.
Besides Austin, the urban districts that participated in the comparative look
were: Atlanta; Boston; Charlotte, N.C.; Chicago; Cleveland; Houston; Los Angeles;
New York and San Diego.
The districts enroll a disproportionately large share of minorities, children
who have limited English ability, and children from low-income families. Taking
this into account, the results released Wednesday showed minorities in the city
schools often performed similarly to students with the same backgrounds in the
national sample.
The topics covered on the tests include earth science, physics, chemistry and
biology.
The new scores emphasize how much room for improvement remains across a range
of urban districts just as is the case for most of the nation's schools.
Nationally, for example, just a little more than a quarter of students in both
grades could handle challenging subject matter a skill level educators call
"proficient".
Among the city schools, only Austin had about that proportion of students testing
at that level in both grades, with Charlotte not far behind.
Cleveland had the smallest percentage of fourth- and eighth-grade students who
were proficient no more than 6 percent.
Fourth-graders working at a proficient level can relate the relative amount
of time a candle burns to the amount of air available. Proficient eighth-graders
can identify the energy conversions that occur in an electric fan.
Nationally, 34% of fourth-graders fell into the bottom achievement category,
unable to perform at even a "basic" level. That category also applied
to 43% of eighth-graders.
The urban districts all had more students in the lowest-scoring category than
the nationwide sample.
Chicago and Los Angeles had the most fourth-graders in that group, with 65%
falling below basic levels.
Atlanta fared the worst among eighth-graders, with 78% of students recording
below basic scores.
Gerry Wheeler, executive director of the National Science Teacher Association,
called the report discouraging.
"There's no way these young adults are going to be able to survive in this
scientific and technological society," Wheeler said. He cited high teacher
turnover and a lack of emphasis on teacher training as problems in urban school
districts.
The government could not point to specific trends for the urban group, since
this was the first time those cities have volunteered to have their scores put
under a microscope.
The national science scores were released earlier this year and showed improvements
among elementary school children nationwide in science since 2000, but not among
middle and high school students.
"We need to devote more time and energy to science instruction, not just
in the cities but nationwide, because nobody has much bragging rights on science
performance anywhere in the country," said Michael Casserly, executive
director of the Council of the Great City Schools a coalition of urban public
school systems.
Casserly said the test results demonstrate a need for national standards in
science to clarify what students are expected to know. The group also is advocating
national standards for reading and math.
Urban students generally also scored lower than students nationwide in reading
and math on national tests given last year.
The No Child Left Behind law, which Congress passed in 2001, requires states
to administer their own assessments in math and reading, with penalties for
schools that fail to improve.
State science testing under the law will begin in the 2007-08 school year, although
schools will not face consequences for their performance something President
Bush wants Congress to change.
The new report of lackluster performance underscores a deep concern among political
and business executives who see eroding science achievement as a threat to the
U.S. economy.
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"Most Students in Big Cities Lag Badly in Basic
Science”
The New York Times
by Diana Jean Schemo
A least half of eighth graders tested in science failed to demonstrate even
a basic understanding of the subject in 9 of 10 major cities, and fourth graders,
the only other group tested, fared little better, according to results released
here Wednesday.
The outcome of those tests, part of the National Assessment of Educational Progress,
often called the nation's report card, showed that student performance in urban
public schools was not only poor but also far short of science scores in the
nation as a whole.
Half or a little more of the eighth-grade students in Charlotte, San Diego and
Boston lacked a basic grasp of science.
In six of the other cities--New York, Houston, Chicago, Cleveland, Los Angeles
and Atlanta--the share of eighth graders without that knowledge was even higher,
ranging from about three-fifths in New York to about four-fifths in Atlanta.
By comparison, the corresponding share for the nation as a whole was 43%.
Among the 10 cities, only in Austin were the eighth graders who lacked a basic
understanding in the minority, and just barely there.
''It's a national disgrace,'' said Rodger W. Bybee, director of the Biological
Sciences Curriculum Study, which develops and evaluates science curriculums
and promotes the teaching of science. ''We as a nation should be able to do
better than that.''
At the fourth-grade level, a majority of students in all the 10 cities except
Austin, Charlotte, and San Diego failed to demonstrate basic understanding in
science, compared with 34% nationwide. According to a report accompanying the
scores, this meant they lacked the skills and reasoning needed to learn science,
and could not read simple charts or follow elementary experiments. A similar
definition, though with expectations of a higher level of skill, applied to
eighth graders.
Students in New York were on a par with those in other large cities, though
white students there scored lower than whites in other cities and in the nation.
The scores of blacks and Latinos in New York were not significantly different
from those of similar students in the other cities.
New York's schools chancellor, Joel I. Klein, pointed out in a statement that
low-income students there had done better than those in most other cities, but
added, ''We, like the rest of the country, have a lot more work to do in this
critical area'' of teaching science to the poor.
He noted that beginning with the next academic year, the city would begin testing
students annually in science in Grades 3 to 8. Another innovation for the 2007-08
school year is that under the No Child Left Behind Act, public schools across
the country must begin testing students in science at least once from Grades
3 to 8. But the results of these tests, like those of New York's, will not determine
whether schools have made sufficient progress under the law, which counts only
reading and math to determine a school's standing.
While states use a hodgepodge of tests to measure student achievement, the national
assessment is the only exam given to students nationwide. The science test--in
Earth, physical, and life sciences--was given in early 2005 to 280,000 students,
including an extra 30,000 at public schools in the 10 cities, which had volunteered
so that they could get a comparative snapshot of performance. The scores were
grouped in four categories, from below basic to advanced.
The results prompted the Council of the Great City Schools, which represents
the nation's largest school districts, to call for national standards in science,
and in reading and math as well.
Michael Casserly, the group's executive director, acknowledged that political
resistance to national standards was strong in a nation that generally considers
education a prerogative of localities. But Casserly said such standards would
lend clarity to efforts to improve achievement.
The fourth-grade national assessment, he said, tests students in subjects like
electrical circuitry, the difference between plant and animal cells, and the
formation of rocks. ''But some state standards,'' he continued, ''don't teach
them until the fifth grade. It is not clear, then, what our teachers are supposed
to teach when.''
Gerald Wheeler, executive director of the National Science Teachers Association,
who wrote some of the questions asked on the national assessment, said he found
the test results ''extremely disappointing.''
''There's no way these kids are going to be able to survive in our technological
society,'' Dr. Wheeler said.
With the exception of fourth graders in Austin, low-income students in urban
schools performed significantly below the average for low-income students nationwide.
''Student poverty, parent education, home resources, English-language proficiency,
and other factors outside our control work in tandem like a perfect storm to
dampen our results in ways that few others have to contend with,'' Casserly
said.
But the results suggested that performance was influenced more by the disparities
associated with race and income than by whether students attended school in
cities or in other settings, said Darvin M. Winick, chairman of the National
Assessment Governing Board, which oversees the test.
For example, while Atlanta was below the median in the ranking of urban performance,
its white fourth graders not only did better on the exam than did 86% of fourth
graders across the country but also outperformed the nation's white fourth graders
as a whole, who reached only the 62nd percentile. At the same time, the city's
black fourth graders were in the bottom 22% of fourth graders nationwide--two
points below the national average for blacks.
Only in Austin, Houston, and Charlotte did black and Latino fourth graders score
higher than similar students in the nation as a whole. Still, their scores were
in the bottom 25% to 32% of all students taking the exam.
“Boston Students Found to Lag in Basic Science Concepts; U.S. Test Reports on Shortcomings in 4th, 8th Grades”
Boston Globe by
Tracy Jan
Most fourth- and eighth-graders in Boston's public schools have not mastered
the basic science concepts for their grade level, according to the results of
a national science test released yesterday by the U.S. Department of Education.
The science exam, given last year by the federal government for the first time
to measure performance at urban school districts, found that Boston scores fell
in the middle among the 10 urban school systems sampled. Only 43% of Boston's
fourth-graders, and 38% of its eighth-graders, demonstrated at least a basic
understanding of Earth, physical, and life sciences.
Based on the average score in about 70 cities with populations of more than
250,000, just 47 percent of fourth-graders and 40 percent of eighth-graders
showed a basic understanding of science.
“It's extremely disappointing that our kids in these urban areas are scoring
so low," said Gerald Wheeler, executive director of the National Science
Teachers Association, who helped to develop the exam. "We've got a real
serious problem in this country if the majority is scoring below basic."
Students in Austin, Texas, and Charlotte, N.C., performed the best.
There, more than half were found to have had at least a basic understanding
of science and a higher percentage of students showed proficient or advanced
levels of knowledge.
The two school systems, however, have fewer poor students than in Boston, where
more than three-fourths of students tested were identified as from low-income
backgrounds.
According to the study, Boston students from low-income families performed better
than low-income students in other urban districts, such as Atlanta, Chicago,
and Los Angeles.
The test quizzed fourth-graders on electrical circuitry, the difference between
plant and animal cells, and the formation of rocks; eighth-graders were asked
to describe how plants prevent erosion, to explain relative motion of two vehicles,
and to identify the relationship between rainfall and seed production.
The science exam is part of the National Assessment of Educational Progress
(NAEP), which also tests students on reading, math, and other subjects. Often
called the "nation's report card," the NAEP test is also the only
national exam that breaks out the performance of urban students.
The 10 districts that participated were Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Charlotte,
Chicago, Cleveland, Houston, Los Angeles, New York City, and San Diego.
To boost achievement, the federal government should judge systems by how well
students know science, along with reading and mathematics, Wheeler said.
States must create tougher science standards and train better teachers, he said.
The Council of the Great City Schools, which represents urban school systems,
has urged Congress to set national standards.
In Massachusetts, high school students, beginning with the class of 2010, must
pass a science exam to graduate.
Boston Public Schools is updating its science curriculum to match state science
standards, said Chris Coxon, deputy superintendent of teaching and learning.
Elementary teachers have received new science instruction kits that focus on
weather, rocks and minerals, and body systems, among other topics.
Many elementary schools have also added science specialists, and are beginning
to offer science electives for students, in addition to regular classroom lessons,
Coxon said.