Posted on 05/28/2006 6:31:38 AM PDT by billorites
The first science test administered in five years across the United States shows that achievement among high school seniors has declined across the past decade, even as scores in science rose among fourth-graders and held steady among eighth-graders, the U.S. Department of Education has reported.
The falling average science test scores among high school students, announced Wednesday, appeared certain to increase anxiety about American academic competitiveness and to add new urgency to calls from President George W. Bush, governors and philanthropists like Bill Gates for an overhaul of American high schools.
The drop in science proficiency appeared to reflect a broader trend in which some academic gains made in elementary grades and middle school have been seen to fade during the high school years. The science results come from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a comprehensive examination administered in early 2005 by the Department of Education to more than 300,000 students in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and on U.S. military bases around the world.
"Our fourth-graders are doing better - that's the good news," said Darvin Winick, chairman of the bipartisan body set up by Congress to oversee the test. "But the 12th-grade results are distressing, there's no other way to slice it."
The science test, which was administered during the first months of 2005, covered the earth, physical and life sciences, and was last given in 2000 and in 1996. The test administrators translate scores into three achievement levels: advanced, proficient and basic.
On the most recent test, 68 percent of fourth-graders achieved at or above the basic level, compared to 63 percent on the 2000 and 1996 tests.
The rising science achievement among fourth graders mirrored similar trends on nationwide reading and math tests released last fall. In interviews...
(Excerpt) Read more at iht.com ...
Duh,,...like no kidding. Thanks to the politically correct movement, "no child left behind", don't hurt anyone's "self esteem", etc. It's a wonder they can add 2 + 2.
Perhaps the MOST serious problem is our failure to properly educate the technocrats necessary to compete with an emerging Asia. Some U.S. kids ARE being trained in those areas – in HOME and CHURCH schools, NOT in government schools.
Thanks to the decades long “feel-good” agenda of the NEA and the “educrats” at the Department of Education, most government school kids spend hours that SHOULD be devoted to the physical sciences and math studying politically correct self-awareness and sensitivity training. I wonder how many Chinese or Indian kids are doing that?
The good news is that at least OUR kids may still feel good about themselves --standing in the unemployment line.
Not true I went to public school and I know 2+2-eleventeen.
High school is chiefly a dating service. The only way we can seriously overhaul the system is to institute separate schools for boys and girls. Their brains in our over-sexualized society have relocated from their heads to their crotches, and that's all most of them think about, usually with disasterous results.
What Chinese or Indian schools would put up with the lack of discipline, truancy, sex and gang violence? And why do we allow it?
They seem to spend 2/3rds of their time on "Recycling" and "Environmental Science".
If I had gone to a male-only high school I'd probably have been a Rhodes scholar.
Who has time for science when the kids have to be taught tha queer is normal and that conservatism and capitalism are evil?
My daughter is a public high school teacher and she has a strong set of moral values but high school is a bit too late for trying to get those values across to kids. Teaching morality is not her job anyway, nor should it be, that's the parents job.
Last year she had four 16 year old girls in one class who were pregnant, one of whom for the second time. Kids fall asleep in class, some don't bother to show up at all. She trys to schedule conferences with a parent and the parent doesn't show, many times there's only one parent in the home.
I agree that there's a lot wrong with public schools though and a lack of caring parents is the root of the problem. If parents cared enough they would demand change and they would be involved in their children's lives.
The best thing for parents who are at all able for the present time is to get their kids out of public education because that demand from the general public is nowhere in sight.
None of this would be the case if religious fanatics hadn't made intelligent design part of the curriculum. < /sarcasm>
IF your question is NOT a purely rhetorical one, I think I can provide an answer:
The master plan to destroy national sovereignty and merge the nations of the world into the elitist plan for a One-World system (now well under way with our amigos to the south -- thank you Bush 41, Clinton and Bush 43!) requires that those nations be approximately economically leveled. One excellent way to do that is to abandon the training in the sciences that gave America the high standard of living so resented by the rest of the world.
A secondary benefit for the elites here is that a nation of citizens ignorant of the scientific method are far more easily "herded" to where the political ruling class elites wish them to go than one consisting of individuals equipped with critical thinking skills.
Another area of current schooling now under assault is early American history. Many schools now completely ignore that history before the War Between the States. As far as most new school kids know, there was no American Revolution. Can you think of the benefits THIS might have for those who would turn this nation into some version of Animal Farm where, of course, SOME would be more equal than others?
Bingo!!!!
And the chaos to which you refer plays well into the plan as it ultimately provides those in charge an opportunity to "crack down," pro bono publico, of course. Do a search on "Hegelian Dialectic" for more info on that.
I anticipate -- and welcome -- a spirited argument on any or all the statements above.
THIS grandfather of 6 would like nothing more -- for them --than to be proven wrong.
Now, 55 years later our children are doing terrible, we spend more per child than we ever have before, even taking inflation into account, proof positive that the liberal way of teaching and running the schools sucks and doesn't work.
So, are we rushing to return to the old ways, actually teaching the children what they are supposed to know instead of indocitrinating them?
No, we go right on pouring more money into the schools, the actual money spent on students is a misnomer because the money isn't spent on students it is spent on administrative personel.
We need to take back our public schools and start teaching our children, get them out of public schools if we have to. The socialist leaders of this country want your children to grow up stupid, this makes it easier for them to manipulate and subvert them. Wise up people, you need to act, and if you think it is just the Dems doing this, think again.
"separate schools for boys and girls. "
And maybe school uniforms with waists and belts so their pants and skirts aren't dragging the ground and falling off their butts.
"High school is chiefly a dating service."
Was gonna say something about teachers....
But seriously, how has that changed in the last 50 years?
Use to be able to drop out at 16, get a job, etc...
Sorry folks, but it doesn't take a lot of science background to go on to colledge with the ultimate goal
of going to Law School or Business School. If they have
good math skill's and a command of the English language (not to mention Mandrin), they'll do just fine.
The difference between the American culture and the Asian culture is the systematic exclusion of boys in the education system. American males are being forced out of every aspect of advancement, and they are being relegated to the sidelines in our ongoing "reshuffling of the deck", forced upon us by the feminists. The sickness of feminism, socialism, and homosexual agenda will be the death of our American culture and it's shining achievements. We are going to all end up being equal in the bottom of the barrel.
Best example: Larry Summers, former Harvard Dean, forced out for daring to tell the truth.
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