Nation’s Report Card Shows Improvement In Science, But There’s Still Work To Do
By Benjamin Ross
October 28, 2016 | Yesterday the White House released the National Assessment of Educational Progress, their report card for the nation’s educational systems. In the field of science, Tennessee was among the standouts of those recognized. In a press conference that featured U.S. Secretary of Education John B. King Jr.; Bill Nye the Science Guy; John Holdren, Assistant to the President for Science and Technology, Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy; and Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam, the four gentlemen discussed the results of the report, as well as areas where improvement could be made.
“Education has been the focus of Tennessee’s story over the past 2 years,” said Haslam during the pre-briefing call. “Tennessee is the only state to grow faster than the nation in both 4th and 8th grade science. Our 8th graders were the fastest improving in the nation (we tied for first with Utah), and our 4th graders were the second fastest improving in the nation, tying with Georgia.”
Other states making major gains included Utah, Arizona, Georgia, and Florida when comparing the score changes in science from 2011 to 2015.
Overall, Tennessee was in the top half of all states in education results, and there were impressive achievements in narrowing gaps in Tennessee’s education system. The state narrowed the gap among African-Americans, Latinos, and Whites in education all around, and the state impressively eliminated the gap between male and female students. Haslam went on to credit these results to the committed teachers and raised expectations on the individual, community, and state levels.
As a whole, these improvements show an increase of critical thinking skills among students on the 4th and 8th grade levels. However, the scores on the 12th grade level haven’t changed. The disparity between these grades is perhaps linked to the investment and timeline of improvements educators are committed to making.
“Improving the education outcome is a long-term investment. So it’s not surprising that you would see earlier gains in 4th and 8th grade, but the current 12th graders had already gone through their elementary education by the time we made these STEM [science, technology, engineering, and math] investments,” said King. “We are optimistic that with the next round of assessments we will see progress at the 12th grade level as well.”
The importance of patience was a nail hit repeatedly during the announcement.
“This is not something that gets done overnight,” said Nye. “This gets done over 13 years.” The number of years Nye mentions is in reference to the amount of time a child will spend in the educational system, on average.
There are three reasons for this focus on science. “One is to feed the pipeline of science and engineering superstars who will be the next generation,” said Holdren. “Secondly, to create the tech-savvy workforce the jobs of the 21st century requires. And thirdly, but not least, to create a science savvy citizenry that our democracy needs in order to function in an environment where more and more of the policy decisions in front of our elected leaders have science and technology content.”
Areas of improvement include general knowledge in algebra, as well as chemistry and physics. “Algebra has proven to be the single most reliable indicator of whether or not a person chooses their career in a technical field,” said Nye. “Algebra is not expensive to teach. It just needs emphasizing. Everyone can do algebra is he or she is encouraged.”
There are enormous improvements that must be made in the educational system to bring it up to the standards our leaders are aiming for, but the report card reveals that America is on the right track for a bright future.