Students in the Washington area’s Maryland suburbs showed slight improvements on the state’s standardized science tests, but most scores remained dismal while troubling gaps persisted among racial groups.
Eighth-graders in Montgomery and Prince George’s scored poorly on the state’s standardized science exams, and racial achievement gaps persisted.
Montgomery County eighth-graders scoring “advanced” and “basic” on Maryland’s science exams:
Race; advanced; basic
Asian; 14 percent; 13 percent
Black; 1 percent; 43 percent
White; 13 percent; 10 percent
Hispanic; 1 percent; 47 percent
Prince George’s County eighth-graders scoring “advanced” and “basic” on Maryland’s science exams:
Race; advanced; basic
Asian; 6 percent; 26 percent
Black; 1 percent; 62 percent
White; 9 percent; 27 percent
Hispanic; 0.3 percent; 65 percent
In Montgomery County, the percentage of students who scored “advanced” — the highest of three categories — increased three points to 13 percent among fifth-graders, and by one point to about 8 percent among eighth-graders. The percentage of students scoring “basic,” the lowest of the categories, dropped slightly to 29 percent among fifth-graders and 26 percent among eighth-graders.
But while 22 percent of Montgomery’s Asian and white fifth-graders scored advanced, only 3 percent of black and Hispanic students achieved similar scores.
In neighboring Prince George’s County, only 3 percent of fifth-graders and 1 percent of eighth-graders scored at the highest level. About half of all fifth-graders and 60 percent of eighth-graders scored basic, according to the results released to the state board of education.
Hispanic students in Prince George’s scored lowest — 1 percent of fifth-graders reached the advanced level, compared with 18 percent of the county’s white students.
Only students in the two grades take the exam. High school students are tested in biology, but those scores have yet to be released. Fifth-graders are expected to work with concepts such as the water cycle and what makes resources renewable. Eighth-graders must have basic understandings of biology, genetics and geology.
Calvert County, a mostly white, mostly rural district to the southeast of Prince George’s, scored among the highest in the region. About one in five of its fifth-graders scored advanced, while the same ratio scored basic. Howard County, directly to the northeast of Montgomery, performed best among eighth-graders, with 15 percent advanced and 14 percent basic.
“The most important thing is having the opportunity to learn,” said Joann Roberts, Calvert’s supervisor of elementary science. She explained that when No Child Left Behind was passed in 2001, administrators were tempted to train focus on reading and math, because those were the subjects that counted toward success under the federal law.
“There had to be a voice saying that those subjects were important, but science has its own benefits — the science classroom is the place to practice those reading and math skills,” Roberts said.
As a result, schools that hold teachers accountable for teaching science, instead of spending one more hour on fractions, for example, perform better overall, Roberts said.
