Information not optimized for viewing on a phone.
Please view on a desktop or tablet.
Evidence of a problem
What's happening in Classrooms, results from student Achievement data, a lack of any meaningful Progress over time — these data provide ample evidence of a serious & ongoing problem in science education.
Classrooms
(click each image to review evidence)
Time
Relatively little time is spent teaching science in elementary grades.
Data suggest that science is taught infrequently in many schools and when it is taught, teachers spend little time on each lesson.
How can students learn concepts that are never taught?
Frequency
Students engage with science infrequently at best.
The most recent data suggest that roughly 80% of K-3 classes, and 65% of grade 4-6 classes, receive science instruction three or fewer days per week, with significant numbers of classes not participating in science instruction even once per week.
Can we expect students to learn science if they are rarely exposed to it?
Lecture
What students do when in science class.
Regardless of grade level, most students experience science through teacher explanation, demonstration or by reading about it in textbooks.
Can we expect students to learn scientific thinking skills by simply being told about them?
Vocabulary
Science instruction is often characterized by memorization and reinforcement activities.
Regardless of grade level, data suggest that science instruction rarely involves investigations; instead students are more likely engaged with memorizing terms, being told about science ideas first, or doing activities to reinforce something already described.
How can we expect students to develop scientific/critical thinking skills if we rarely give them opportunities to investigate phenomena or draw conclusions based on evidence?
#edtech
How do students engage with instructional technologies?
Vast majorities of students, regardless of grade level, infreqently engage with any kind of instructional technology in their science classes.
Why are schools so far behind in employing technology to address the ways students are taught?
Enthusiasm
At lower grade levels, a majority of science teachers indicate a lack of preparedness to encourage students' interest in science.
While most teachers indicated they are well-prepared to manage classroom discipline, far fewer indicate similar levels of preparedness to encourage interest in science and/or engineering.
How can we expect students to develop interest in, and enthusiam for, science when many of their teachers suggest this is a problem themselves?
Achievement
(click each image to review evidence)
4th Grade
A majority of U.S. 4th graders are not proficient in science or mathematics.
While this finding is startling in and of itself, even more so is that only 1% of 4th graders operate at an advanced level in science and only 7% in mathematics.
Can we not expect more?
8th Grade
A majority of 8th-graders are not proficient in science or mathematics.
Results similar to those of 4th-graders are evident in the case of 8th-graders, with very small percentages of students operating at an advanced level.
What will it take to dramatically improve these outcomes?
12th Grade
A vast majority of 12th-grades are not proficient in science.
As is the case for 4th- and 8th-grade students, most high school seniors are not considered proficient in science and only 2% are achieve at an advanced level.
Shouldn't we consider this unacceptable?
Gaps
Achievement gaps in science are evident at all grade levels.
Achievement gaps in science are evident at all grade levels across gender racial/ethnic, and socio-economic groups of students as well as a number of other groups - students with disabilities, location of school and parent education level.
Should we not expect that all students achieve at equally high levels?
Tech/Engineering
A majority of 8th-grades are not proficient in technology and engineering literacy.
While 8th-grade students demonstrate a higher-level of proficiency in this content area than science or mathematics individually, a majority of students still fall short and very few are considered advanced in technology and engineering literacy.
Can we not expect better levels of achievement?
International
Students in many other countries achieve at higher levels than students in the United States.
Even though the United States spends more per pupil on education that most other countries, achievement levels in science lag those of many other countries.
Shouldn't we expect a better return on our investment?
Progress
(click each image to review evidence)
4th Grade
Large majorities of students operate at levels below proficient, with very few achieving an advanced level.
Over the past six years, data show little, if any, meaningful progress in the numbers of 4th-grade students operting at a proficient or advanced level in science.
Should we not expect progress in addressing these deficiencies?
8th Grade
Large majorities of students operate at levels below proficient, with very few achieving an advanced level.
Over the last six years, data show little, if any, meaningful progress in the numbers of 8th-grade students operting at a proficient or advanced level in science.
Should we not expect progress in addressing these deficiencies?
12th Grade
Large majorities of students operate at levels below proficient, with very few achieving an advanced level.
Over the past six years, data show little, if any, meaningful progress in the numbers of 12th-grade students operting at a proficient or advanced level in science.
Should we not expect progress in addressing these deficiencies?
4th Grade
Over 20 Years
Twenty years of TIMSS assessments show no change in student achievement.
Education reform began in earnest in the 1980s with the release of the report A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Education Reform. For the twenty years encompassing 1995 through 2015, data indicate little, if any change, in achievement levels of students in science. Despite a myriad of technological advances (high-speed internet, cheap and powerful computers, etc.), student achievement in science remains mired in mediocrity.
What will it take to make a difference?
8th Grade
Over 20 Years
Twenty years of TIMSS assessments show no change in student achievement.
Education reform began in earnest in the 1980s with the release of the report A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Education Reform. For the twenty years encompassing 1995 through 2015, data indicate little, if any change, in achievement levels of students in science. Despite a myriad of technological advances (high-speed internet, cheap and powerful computers, etc.), student achievement in science remains mired in mediocrity.
What will it take to make a difference?
12th Grade
Over 20 Years
Twenty years of TIMSS assessments show little change in student achievement.
Student being assessed in this category represent the U.S.'s best and brightest science students. (Only 12th-grade students enrolled in, or that have completed, a Physics course are tested.) Yet these students achieve at relatively low levels and data show little improvement over twenty years.
What will it take to make a difference?
<
>
