Study finds U.S. failure in science education

William Atkins
Wednesday, 26 January 2011 09:50

Science - Biology

A U.S. government study has found that only one in three children in middle school and junior high school show proficiency in science. Unfortunately, it gets worse for kids in high school.

The U.S. Department of Education (DOE) issued its 2009 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) on Tuesday, January 25, 2011.

The NAEP is informally called 'The Nation's Report Card.' One response from the results is the following: ''¦ the next generation will not be ready to be world-class inventors, doctors, and engineers.'

According to the DOE's NAEP website: 'The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is the largest nationally representative and continuing assessment of what America's students know and can do in various subject areas. Assessments are conducted periodically in mathematics, reading, science, writing, the arts, civics, economics, geography, and U.S. history."

 

The 2009 NAEP report basically says U.S. students are doing poorly in science.

The NAEP study looked at 156,500 fourth-grade children (those from 9 to 10 years of age), 151,100 eighth-grade children (from 13 to 14 years of age), and 11,100 12th-graders (from 17 to 18 years).

In all, students from 46 states were involved, along with students from Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) schools.

The NAEP study, whose scoring consisted of a science scale that ranged from 0 to 300, examined studies of basic scientific concepts at the children's respective grade levels.

Page two reveals the sad results of the NAEP science test.