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Research on Science Education

 
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Slide 4

NAEP 2000 Proficiency

Speaker's notes explaining graph:

This slide presents results from the year 2000 National Assessment of Educational Progress in Science. This is the most recent NAEP that has been administered in science. Proficient is the achievement level defined as solid academic performance for each grade assessed. The slide indicates that 4th and 8th graders hover around 30% proficient, but this drops to half that in 12th grade. Higher percentages of students at each of the 3 grades score "below basic",which means they haven't achieved even partial mastery of prerequisite knowledge and skills that are fundamental for proficient work at each grade. The picture for Blacks is worse. Here you see that from 2/3 to _ are below basic at each grade tested. Being below basic in the 12th grade means, for example, that the student cannot draw a simple diagram of the solar system.

U.S. Department of Education. Institute of Education Sciences. NCES. The Nation's Report Card: Science 2000, NCES 2003-453, by C. Y. O'Sullivan, M. A. Lauko, W. S. Grigg, J. Qian, and J. Zhang. Washington, DC: 2003.