Re-Launching America’s Science Education

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A flaming wake-up call rang loudly in America almost a half-century ago. It came in the shape of a 184-pound metal ball named Sputnik, changing the course of science education in the United States. Further, writes editor Rhonda Barton in Northwest Education magazine, published by the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, “America was losing the race for space, and if we didn’t step up our science and technology efforts, we literally would be left earthbound.”

The wake-up call brought strong action in our national mindset and into our schools. Just over a decade later, an American was on the moon. “However,” says Barton, “that single-minded push wasn’t sustained and the trajectory of U.S. students’ science performance faltered.”

Today, another bell has been sounded by the National Commission on Mathematics and Scientific Teaching for the 21st Century and the No Child Left Behind Act.

Former astronaut and U. S. Senator John Glenn chaired the National Commission on Mathematics and Scientific Teaching for the 21st Century. Its 2000 report deemed our nation’s science education performance as “in a word, unacceptable.” The commission noted that over half of the high school students taking physical science were taught by out-of-field teachers, meaning those who were simply not prepared to teach in that particular area, although they might have credentials in another area. Twenty percent of high school science teachers lacked even a minor in their teaching field. The commission saw increased professional development of science teachers and a rigorous, relevant curriculum as promising ways to approach the problem.

Science and how it is taught in our public schools is the latest subject to undergo increased public scrutiny as a result of the No Child Left Behind Act, requiring all states to develop science standards by 2005–2006. It includes administering annual science assessments at least once in three different grade spans (3–5, 6–9, and 10–12) by 2007–2008. Although science scores, reports Barton, won’t be linked to a school’s adequate yearly progress, the new mandates add some urgency to the debate over good science education.

The spring 2005 issue of Northwest Education, “Science Under the Microscope,” free on the Laboratory’s Web site at www.nwrel.org/nwedu/10-03/, amplifies what this means with a view into Northwest schools. Articles look at a broad reform effort led by science educators, strategies for reaching middle school students, and why physics should be taught as an introductory rather than a capstone course. The magazine also looks at how Northwest states are approaching science standards and assessments.

This column by Karen Lytle Blaha is provided as a public service by the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, a nonprofit institution working with schools and communities in Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington.