Jan 22 2008
How are we doing?
Science education is in trouble. Just ask anyone, the papers talk about international test scores, the presidental canidates talk about international competitivness NSTA points out that time spend teaching science has declined since NCLB. Pretty grim. But I just don’t buy it. It seems to me that the education establishment sets up a crisis then goes into panic mode. Remeber Nation At Risk? Now, since I am a scientist, I need evidense that my gut feeling, that we are not doing a terrible job here in the trenches, is correct. Enter the Urban Institute’s study, Into The Eye of The Storm.
http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/411562_Salzman_Science.pdf .
To sum up, if we are falling behind in preparing students for science careers, why do over 60% of the graduates with science degrees, at the bachalors level, work on other fields? They also point out that American students are consistantly performing well on international tests, although not at the top. Interestingly enough, the two countries that are loomineconomic competitors, China and India were not on the TIMSS listing I could find.
Don’t get me wrong. Science education in America can be improved, indeed must be improved, but I don’t think setting up bogey men or deriding current efforts is a good way to bring about change. maybe rethinking and teaching what we would like the average citizen to know would be a start.
There will be issues with China and India in the future, but pretending that better science education will make that go away is a delusion and a dangerous one. There are many factors in the rise of China and India, and they all must be addressed. Just like there are many issues in a student’s success.
There are several very well thought out blogs with similar thoughts, here are some links.
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