Science
I used to blog for my old company, but they took the blog down. I am
not actually allowed to own the writings I put up on that blog, but as
I reference them on occasion in my writing I am putting those articles
up in my archives here for reference sake. I'll put the tag GS on those
articles noting that they were originally published on the http://schoolfinder.globalscholar.com/blog/
Science
June 10, 2008 – 6:06 am by Brendan
Another month another report telling us how bad our students our. The National Center for Education Statistics has released it report on the condition of Science Literacy in the United States. The National Science Teachers Association has reviewed the report.
It is what you expected, the U.S. Is below average in science literacy. Of course most of this information was taken from the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), which was last taken in 2006 and will again be taken in 2009, where the focus will be on Reading. What you don’t expect to hear (and you don’t) is that when comparing Science scores from the top students (90th percentile) the U.S. Ranks a bit above average, though statistically an insignificant amount.
What you do hear is that our student population is growing. You hear our student populations is getting more diverse. You hear that drop out rates for whites, African Americans, and Hispanics are falling. You hear math and reading scores are increasing. You hear college enrollment is increasing.
You hear hope if you want to listen. Our schools improve year after year. We have along way to go obviously, but let’s keep working. The one thing schools do too often is give up on programs or reforms that are working. They give up because they aren’t working fast enough, or someone else takes over and puts their baby in place, or school boards change, or what ever. What we are doing is improving, let’s take what works and keep it then build on it and increase the pace of improvement.
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