NAEP gives three rating to students in science -- basic, proficient and advanced. Suffice it to say that if our science programs were accomplishing their goals, most students should fall into the proficient range (show competency over challenging subject matter at their grade level) and a significant number should fall in the advanced category. That is simply not happening. Here are the percentages at three grade levels that meet the proficiency and advanced levels:
PROFICIENT
4th grade...............34%
8th grade...............30%
12th grade...............21%
ADVANCED
4th grade...............1%
8th grade...............2%
12th grade...............1%
Those are some pretty pathetic numbers. If something is not done about this very quickly, this country will fall far behind many other countries in the area of science and research (and that will certainly not do our economy any good).
Education Secretary Arne Duncan said, "When only one or two percent of children score at the advanced levels on NAEP, the next generation will not be ready to be world-class inventors, doctors and engineers. Our nation's students aren't learning at a rate that will maintain America's role as an international leader in the sciences."
Here in Texas it doesn't look like the teaching of science is going to get better any time soon. The state is in the process of cutting funds for education, laying off teachers, and injecting religion into the science classes. I suspect this is also happening in many other states.
If we really cared about the future of our nation (and its people), we would fully fund our schools and get religion out of science classrooms. Failure to do so is a prescription for failure.
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