A modest education victory
Virginia eighth-graders outpace the nation in science, but live in the world.
First the good news: Virginia’s eighth-grade public school students outscored their national peers in science knowledge last year. The National Assessment of Educational Progress report rated 40 percent of them proficient or better. That was up from 36 percent in 2009.
Now the bad news: Only 40 percent of Virginia’s eight-graders rated proficient or better in science knowledge. Only two out of five Virginia eighth-graders and less than one-third nationally demonstrate science competency.
Outperforming their fellow Americans, while an accomplishment, is a small victory when the nation’s students collectively perform so poorly.
May 15, 2012 - 8:08 AM
Small victory indeed. However, I have to wonder what method are the teachers using to teach science. Are they using the bedrock principle of using observation, hypothesis, testing, revising, and publishing?
Evolution, creationism, and climate change are all interesting subject that should be allowed to be explored in science as it challenge all the principle of science.
After all, isn’t that not the whole point of science? To discover, test, reproof, and revise?
Trevor, I suspect but cannot say for certain, those methods aren’t being used due in part to time constraints. It’s more likely presentation of results with explanatory reasons how these results were achieved.
That’s probably a good thing for the most part. We don’t spend education time trying to re-prove the earth isn’t flat. We show them a picture taken from space, say the earth is round, and be done with it.
Besides, at that age especially but at all stages, most of us simply have to take the scientist’s word for it rather than trying to disprove everything presented. Nor do we choose to disbelieve presented conclusions because we haven’t done the experiment ourselves. Most of us don’t have the expertise or time to do it.
That’s why we accept the conclusions of 95% of global climate scientists that humans are changing the atmosphere and hence our climate to make things warmer. A person may not understand very much about genetics but should accept that evolution is real and happening.
It does not and it will not matter what teacher or teaching method is used as long as we persist in being a nation that disdains education in general and science in particular. Children learn their attitude toward education from school AND from home and I think we see where that opinion falls for far too many families.
Nations that value education and prize their education system have better outcomes and are being imported here. That alone should tell people something.
Of course the idea that little Janey and Johnny might learn something that God never told you they should will keep schools (and the nation) under the thumb of religion and the American exceptionalism myth through revised history, whether anyone admits it or not.