Cairo Association of Teachers - Newsletter

CAT Tracks for March 12, 2008 ISAT SCIENCE

New testing rules, and poor science achievement scores, are bringing renewed focus and energy to science instruction in schools

By Laura Devaney, Senior Editor, eSchool News

Federally mandated math and reading tests have taken the focus away from science ... until now. As schools prepare for the debut this fall of science testing under No Child Left Behind, educators and science advocates are calling for renewed awareness of what many say is a national crisis in science education.

Science-minded educators have lamented that federally mandated math and reading tests have taken valuable class time away from science instruction. Those same educators have voiced hope that science testing under NCLB will bring a renewed focus to instruction in the topic.

States will be required to test students in science once a year in elementary (grades 3-5), middle (grades 6-9), and high schools (grades 10-12). The new rules come at a critical time for the nation, because the science scores of U.S. students on recent national and international benchmark exams have been anything but stellar.

Eighty-two percent of the nation’s 12th graders performed below the proficient level on the 2000 National Assessment of Educational Progress science test. Average scores on the most recent Program for International Student Assessment ranked U.S. students 21st out of 30 industrialized countries in science.

Education groups cite a number of reasons for these disappointing results, including an inordinate number of instructors who are teaching science even though the subject is outside their field of expertise. Some organizations also have produced studies that show school districts have reduced the amount of time they spend on science education since NCLB’s inception.

A spring 2007 study of San Francisco elementary schools conducted by UC Berkeley’s Lawrence Hall of Science and West Ed, a nonprofit research agency, revealed that 80 percent of teachers in those elementary schools reported spending 60 minutes or less on science education each week. Sixteen percent of teachers said they did not spend any time on science.

District representatives who responded to the LHS study reported that a diminishing amount of time has been spent on science teaching since NCLB’s enactment. Districts with schools in Program Improvement (PI) status owing to math and language-arts test results reported having little or no time for science instruction at all.

A 2007 report from the Center on Education Policy, meanwhile, revealed that some school districts have increased the time they spend on math and reading education by more than two hours per week, while cutting time for science, social studies, music, and art by one-third.

The report examined 349 school districts. Those districts reported that during the 2006-07 school year, elementary schools spent almost three times as many minutes per week on English and language arts as they did on science and social studies. They spent nearly twice as many minutes per week on math as on science or social studies.

The 2000 Glenn Commission report, Before It’s Too Late, identified the need for better science teaching as another key reason for the nation’s disappointing results on international exams.

“The most direct route to improving [science] achievement for all students is better … teaching,” the report stated. “A closer look at the teaching that goes on in [science] classrooms today puts the performance of U.S. students on national and international assessments in sharper focus. The basic teaching style in too many [science] classes today remains essentially what it was two generations ago. By contrast, teaching innovation and higher student performance are well documented in other countries, where students’ improvements are anchored to an insistence on strong professional development for teachers.”

In response to the nation’s lack of solid science performance and the need for highly qualified science teachers, the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) recently announced a $43 million, five-year effort to create a national Center for Science Education (CSE). CSE initiatives will promote science literacy, produce the next generation of science education standards, and create a state-of-the-art facility that will allow science educators nationwide to engage in leadership and content-based learning opportunities, the organization said.

Sen. John Glenn, former NASA astronaut and a champion of science education, was tapped to chair the center’s $23 million external fundraising campaign. To date, more than $12 million has been pledged for the campaign, highlighted by lead gifts from Agilent Technologies, Amgen Foundation, Bayer Corp., Bechtel Jr. Foundation, Discovery Channel, GE Foundation, and Toyota Corp. In addition, NSTA has committed to finance up to $20 million, nearly half of the funds needed, in support of this initiative.

Inspired by the Glenn Commission report, the CSE campaign will focus on many of the report’s recommendations and will feature as its cornerstone a new $30 million, high-tech facility located just outside Washington, D.C. The new facility will serve as a launching pad to advocate for high-quality science education and as both a virtual and concrete learning center to develop science education leaders and provide content-driven training for teachers.

“The Glenn Commission laid out a highly detailed plan for improving the performance of American students and reinvigorating science and math teaching, and now is the time to take action and implement some of the commission’s ideas,” said Gerry Wheeler, NSTA’s executive director. “The Center for Science Education is NSTA’s vision for improving science education and elevating high-quality teaching in the U.S.”

The campaign also will fund CSE programs, including the NSTA New Science Teacher Academy, designed to address science teacher attrition by offering professional development and mentoring support for early-career teachers; the NSTA Learning Center, an internet portal created to provide science teachers with in-depth, science-content help, short courses, and online seminars and meetings; and the CSE Leadership Institute, which will offer workshops, seminars, and other highly visible initiatives, including Science Matters, a public awareness and engagement campaign designed to rekindle a national sense of urgency about science education, and Science Anchors, a forward-thinking effort to identify core science concepts that will reflect a consensus on essential science skills and knowledge necessary for 21st-century learning.

“The CSE is really the embodiment of the Glenn Commission’s recommendations,” Wheeler said. “If we’re going to raise science standards and teaching, we have to get help for science teachers who need help with content and reaching students.”

He added: “Science has been on the back burner since the beginning of NCLB, and we’re going to have to play catch-up.”

Other organizations are joining the push for science awareness.

The Elementary Science Coalition (ESC), a group of educators, educational publishing companies, and corporations with a vested interest in a strong scientific workforce, has called for a complete overhaul of the nation’s elementary science education system, saying a revolution is needed to ensure that students receive high-quality science instruction.

“The Elementary Science Coalition will be on the front lines of that revolution,” said ESC Executive Director Rita Ferrandino. “Through lobbying efforts, public awareness campaigns, support for professional development, and best practices, ESC will be leading the charge, changing the way that elementary science is valued in this country.”

Educators and elected officials gathered at an ESC event held in March to voice their support for the group’s mission, including U.S. Representatives Vernon Ehlers, R-Minn., and Rush Holt, D-N.J.

“Our economic future depends upon the investments we make in tomorrow’s workforce,” Holt said, calling upon science advocates to mobilize public awareness and interest in science education.

In Ohio, a new program to create more schools focused on science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) will prepare students to better compete in a global marketplace, state officials said.

The Ohio STEM Learning Network, a nonprofit initiative that will oversee the program, will begin with the creation of five math and science schools in different regions of the state by 2009.

Gov. Ted Strickland and state lawmakers announced the program at Metro High School, a science and math school that opened in 2006 on the campus of Ohio State University. The new program will be financed with the help a $12 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Each of the new schools will be the hub in a wider network connecting students studying biological sciences, for example, with a professional outlet such as the Cleveland Clinic, where they could use hands-on science skills in a practical environment. Another region, which might focus on engineering, would expose students to real-life engineering training.

“We’re in a global economy, and we’ve got to compete,” said state lawmaker Jon Husted, who is one of the central backers of the program. “And we are. Today represents a wonderful step in that direction.”

In 1970, half of those who held engineering and science degrees were Americans, but by 2010 that number will drop to 15 percent, according to a U.S. Department of Education statistic cited by Husted.

Ohio lawmakers also have set aside $100 million for a technology-focused college scholarship program created in the current two-year state budget plan.

The program, which will be managed by Columbus-based Battelle, a nonprofit research and development organization, hopes by 2015 to double the number of college graduates in Ohio with degrees in science, math, and technology disciplines.

The five regional schools will target minorities and students who come from low-income families, in keeping with the Gates Foundation’s goal of making cutting-edge educational reform available to all students, regardless of race or economic means, said Steve Seleznow, education program director for the foundation.

The purpose of the program is to encourage students to develop problem-solving skills in group settings rather than using rote memorization, advocates said. Students said in a video presentation that they could, for example, use physics and math skills to create video games.

Some companies are doing their part to help encourage a new wave of highly qualified science teachers.

The Siemens Foundation this month announced the winners of the 2008 Siemens Teacher Scholarships, the third year of a collaboration among the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, the United Negro College Fund, and the Siemens Foundation. The program encourages students at historically black colleges and universities who plan to pursue teaching careers in science and math. It also gives them an interactive classroom experience through the Siemens Foundation’s Siemens Science Day program.

“By providing the tools and resources to students who have expressed a genuine interest in teaching math and science, we get a step closer to increasing the number of teachers and role models for our next generation of leaders,” said Jeniffer Harper-Taylor, vice president of the Siemens Foundation.