Most eighth-graders in the District, Virginia and Maryland did not pass a federal science test in 2011, even as they increased their scores slightly over those from 2009.

In Maryland, only 32 percent of students showed “proficiency” or higher on the 2011 Nation’s Report Card, the results of which were released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Education. The picture was only slightly sunnier in Virginia, where 40 percent of students understood with proficiency scientific concepts such as the collision of tectonic plates.

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