Virginia students outpaced their Maryland rivals on federal science standards that experts say predict not just which kids will become rocket scientists, but who can function in society. Even though Virginia’s average scores squashed the nation’s, a large percentage of both states’ students scored “below basic” on the test known as the Nation’s Report Card, painting a dismal picture of science education in the U.S.
Fourth-graders in Virginia earned an average score of 162 on the 300-point National Assessment of Educational Progress, beating Maryland’s 150 score and the nation’s 149, and surpassing every other state but New Hampshire. Sixteen percent of commonwealth students scored “below basic,” alongside Maryland’s 28 percent and the nation’s 29 percent.
As students prepared to enter high school, their grasp of scientific concepts deteriorated further: Forty percent of Maryland eighth-graders and 30 percent of Virginia eighth-graders scored “below basic” on the federal standards. Just 2 percent of eighth-grade students in both states scored in the “advanced” range.
| Percentage of eighth-grade public school students performing “below basic” on the Nation’s Report Card science exam: | |||||||||||||||
| Overall | White | Black | Hispanic | Asian | Male | Female | |||||||||
| Maryland | 40 | 13 | 50 | 34 | 14 | 27 | 30 | ||||||||
| Virginia | 30 | 7 | 36 | 20 | 7 | 17 | 16 | ||||||||
| Nation | 38 | 14 | 54 | 48 | 20 | 29 | 29 | ||||||||
| Source: U.S. Department of Education | |||||||||||||||
“That’s pretty scary to me. … Basic is pretty simple — it’s the minimum things you expect students to know at this grade level,” said Alan Friedman, vice chairman of the assessment development committee for the National Assessment Governing Board.
Bruce Alberts, editor-in-chief of Science
magazine, said scientific critical thinking skills are necessary for people to become “rational human beings” and make decisions about “how they spend their money, how they don’t get tricked, how they support politicians.”
“It’s too easy to get fooled if you don’t think in the way that scientists think,” Alberts said.
Virginia fourth-graders posted a racial achievement gap smaller than the national average, and the state’s students also achieved a smaller gender gap than the nation.
State Superintendent Patricia Wright said Virginia’s “high standards” were showcased by the scores; locally, Myra Thayer agreed: The Pre-K-12 science coordinator for Fairfax County Public Schools thanked “a high level of scientific investigation and inquiry written into our state standards” for Virginia students’ relatively high pass rate.
Alexandria City Public Schools science specialist Melissa Hamilton also credited state curricula to explain the smaller achievement gap. “When you’re using a diverse group of strategies, you’re going to be meeting different learners’ needs,” she said.
Scores from the District were not included in the report.
A spokesman for the Maryland State Department of Education said he had not reviewed the data because of Tuesday’s state board of education meeting.
Montgomery County Public Schools declined to comment on its science curriculum.
