California Students Get D in Science

California students earned the equivalent of a D--worse than 65% of eighth-graders in the rest of the country--on a tough new test of science knowledge.

Nationally, the testing found, most U.S. high school graduates know only enough science to read a graph and follow directions to carry out a simple experiment. But the majority cannot apply scientific facts and principles or explain their reasoning clearly.

Out of 44 states and territories participating in the 1996 National Assessment of Educational Progress, the nation’s only ongoing survey of student achievement, California’s students ranked 39th, higher only than Hawaii, Mississippi, Louisiana, Guam and the District of Columbia.

The figures, released Friday by U.S. education officials in Washington, are only the latest in a series of poor test results for California schools and students. The state has ranked near the bottom in similar analyses of math and reading ability issued by the federal government since 1995.

The results also showed that two group of students who historically perform at the bottom of the heap--the poor and Latinos--do worse in California than in most other places tested.

State Supt. of Public Instruction Delaine Eastin termed California’s science ranking “very disappointing” and called again for establishment of high academic standards and a statewide testing system.

The news was not dramatically cheerier for the nation as a whole. Students in only 19 states--mostly in the Northeast and central regions--performed better than average, with the majority in all the states tested falling at or below the national mean.

Their performance amounts to another form of illiteracy, as potentially grave as an inability to read and compute, said scientists, who noted that being scientifically literate enables people to keep up with the exploding developments in technology and “inoculates” them in an age of Internet cults and other charlatans.

“We are confronted by a paradox of the first order,” said U.S. Education Secretary Richard W. Riley. “We Americans are fascinated by technology. Yet, at the same time, some Americans remain profoundly ignorant.” This ignorance--of scientific advances and principles that influence daily living--can lead, he said, to “confusion, suspicion, even hostility.”

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On the brighter side, girls generally performed as well as boys in the fourth and eighth grades, easing concerns about a gender gap in science. The only substantial gap was found among the highest-achieving students in the 12th grade, where boys scored substantially better than girls. That difference raises concerns about who goes on to college-level courses and careers in science, where women remain underrepresented, experts said.

There was no change in the long-standing differences in achievement between white and black students. Black eighth-graders averaged 120 points on the 300-point scale, compared to 127 for Latinos and 159 for whites.

A notable exception to this trend was found in schools operated by the Defense Department for the children of its employees. African American and Latino students in those schools scored better than their counterparts anywhere else in the country.

The military schools “may well have some important things to say--about discipline and focus and family and community support--to other schools across the nation,” said University of Michigan professor Michael T. Nettles, a member of the board that oversees the federal assessment of educational progress.

The national assessment tested 123,000 students in the fourth, eighth and 12th grades on their knowledge of earth, physical and life sciences. State-by-state comparisons were based on the performance of eighth-graders alone.

The test, which cost $11 million and was administered last spring, was more difficult than previous science assessments, which were dominated by multiple-choice questions.

In the 1996 exam, about two-thirds of the questions required students to write out an answer that could be a paragraph or more. Reflecting a new emphasis on “hands-on” science and the need for practical reasoning skills--as opposed to just regurgitation of science facts--the test also required students to perform actual experiments using materials provided in a kit.

Because the test was so different from previous versions, no comparisons can be made to earlier results. What it did offer were examples of the type of science knowledge attained by students at particular score levels.

For example, the average fourth-grader scoring at the 50th percentile could tell the difference between functions of different types of teeth by their structure. An average 12th-grader could explain what happens when a magnet is placed inside a coil.

A typical eighth-grader could understand the complex relationships between man and his environment in producing acid rain.

In California, however, the average student lacked the knowledge to identify the source of acid rain. The type of question within range of the typical California eighth-grader was one asking students to interpret a graph showing seed production and rainfall.

The report provided some clues as to why California’s performance was so low. It has more students who are not fluent in English than any other state and tied with Utah for the largest class size.

Among poor children, California’s fared worse on the science test than similar children in most other states. Slightly more than a third of California’s students are eligible for a free or reduced-price lunch, and their average score was 120. Texas, by contrast, has slightly more students who fall below the poverty line, but they scored 10 points higher than California’s poor.

“The children who are doing poorly are doing especially poorly in California, which is a serious problem,” said Lawrence Feinberg, assistant director of the national assessment’s governing board.

California officials said the state’s problems are caused by a lack of high, uniform standards for learning, inadequate training of science teachers, and the absence of statewide testing.

“Most states that are making progress in science as well as other core subjects are doing the same things that our successful international competitors are doing,” Eastin said. “They have standards, and they have assessments of their progress meeting those standards.”

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California is setting standards in the core academic areas, including science. The science standards are not expected to be completed until next year.

Federal and state officials said the generally lackluster results point to an overall need for better training of science teachers and overhauling an illogical curriculum that moves too quickly and superficially through too many topics.

Some science educators said inadequate equipment and supplies are another huge problem.

“I know science teachers who have no sink in their classroom. There are elementary schools I’ve visited where they were teaching without a microscope,” said Duane Nichols, a veteran biology and physiology teacher at Alhambra High School, who won a presidential award for science teaching.

Nichols, past president of the California Science Teachers Assn., said many districts are making science lessons more hands-on and focused on problem solving, efforts that have not had enough time to produce results. “We need to have a little faith here,” he said.

Researcher D’Jamila Salem contributed to this report from Washington.

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How California Rates

Here is a comparison of how the average California eighth-grader fared on the 300-point science test administered in the 1996 National Assessment of Educational Progress

Top 6

Maine: 163

North Dakota: 162

Montana: 162

Wisconsin: 160

Minnesota: 159

Bottom 6

California: 138

Hawaii: 135

Mississippi: 133

Louisiana: 132

Guam: 120

District of Columbia 113

Science Knowledge of Eighth-Graders

The chart below shows the increasingly difficult problems that measure the science knowledge of eighth-graders across the nation. Each problem is placed on the scale at the point where a student at that performance level is likely to answer it correctly.

213 Explain cause and prevention of crumbling of ancient monument.

205 Identify part of cell that contains genetic material.

194 Explain why lightning is seen before thunder is heard.

184 Understand markings of contour map to find direction of river flow.

180 Identify areas that have warm summers and cold winters.

172 Explain where earthquakes occur.

166 Measure pH of four types of soil.

163 Describe direction of movement after collision.

158 Identify source of atmospheric oxygen.

153 Classify organism from characteristics.

139 Draw orbits on model of solar system.

138 California’s score.

127 Explain impact of fish death on ecosystem.

124 Explain advantages/disadvantages of planting near a stream.

104 Find typical yearly rainfall from graph.

89 Identify organism that produces its own food.

Source: National Center for Education Statistics, National Assessment of Educational Progress, 1996 Science Assessment.