ATLANTA - Results of “the nation's report card” released today show that many of the 16 Southern Regional Education Board states led the nation in improvements on the most recent round of science test scores.
Scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP, show that seven of the eight states that had gains in fourth-grade science scores between 2000 and 2005 are SREB states: Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia. Delaware and Florida were among the states that did not participate in the NAEP science test in 2000.
Five of the six states that had higher percentages of fourth-grade students scoring at or above “Basic” on the 2005 NAEP science tests compared with 2000 are SREB states: Georgia, Kentucky, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. Three of the four states that had higher percentages scoring at or above the “Proficient” level on the 2005 science test than in 2000 are SREB states: Kentucky, South Carolina and Virginia.
The results also show that four of the 10 states that made gains on the eighth-grade science test are SREB states: Kentucky, Louisiana, South Carolina and Virginia. South Carolina, Kentucky and Virginia were among five states in the nation to show gains on both the fourth-grade and eighth-grade science tests.
No state-by-state results are available on the 12th-grade science tests. The Southeast, however, showed the lowest scores of the four regions. Science scores generally did not increase nationally for 12th-graders.
“The improvements in science show that SREB states can lead the nation in educational progress,” said SREB President Dave Spence, reacting to the news. “We also know there's much more we can do to improve the ways students learn about science, and to ensure that every student in the 16 SREB states and beyond receives an excellent education that leads to good jobs and higher learning.”
Nationally, achievement gaps between white students and their counterparts from other racial/ethnic groups remained apparent. Black students' scores in fourth-grade science were up, and the gap narrowed between black and white students on the results from the 2005 NAEP tests. Gaps between students from low-income and higher-income families also narrowed for fourth-graders. Eighth-graders' and 12th-graders' gaps in science achievement between white students and their black and Hispanic counterparts did not change significantly. Complete state-by-state details are available at http://nationsreportcard.gov.
NAEP measures the science knowledge and skills of fourth-, eighth-, and 12th-grade students. According to the NAEP Science Framework, developed by the National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB), students are assessed in science in the following areas: knowledge of facts; an ability to integrate this knowledge into larger constructs; and the capacity to use the tools, procedures, and reasoning processes of science to develop an increased understanding of the natural world. Based on this framework, the science assessment measures and reports subscales for three major fields of science: earth, physical and life. The assessment also measures three characteristic elements of knowing and doing science: conceptual understanding, scientific investigation and practical reasoning. Each exercise in the science assessment measures one of the elements of knowing and doing science within one of the fields of science (for example, scientific investigation in the context of physical science). The science framework specifies the amount of assessment time to be devoted to each of the three components for grades four, eight and 12.
Teachers' qualifications and training for leading high-quality science classes remain a concern in SREB states and other states. SREB recommends that states pursue policies that will provide more teachers who have high levels of science content knowledge, and that such teachers are assigned to science classes, especially in middle grades.
SREB's Challenge To Lead Goals for Education call for states to ensure that student achievement for all groups of students in early and middle grades exceed national averages and close performance gaps. Details on the Challenge To Lead goals are online at www.sreb.org.
School improvement and education policy experts are available to talk with journalists about the NAEP science results and future directions for science instruction and state education policies. Contact SREB Communications.
SREB, a nonprofit and nonpartisan organization based in Atlanta, Georgia, advises state education leaders on ways to improve education. SREB was created in 1948 by Southern governors and legislatures to help leaders in education and government work cooperatively to advance education and improve the social and economic life of the region. SREB has 16 member states: Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia. Each is represented by its governor and four gubernatorial appointees.
