Science in the City: Consistently Improved Achievement in Elementary School Science Results from Careful Planning and Stakeholder Inclusion

Setting high expectations in science education in the elementary grades, leading to increasingly improved achievement for both poor and minority students, is being demonstrated convincingly by a large urban school district. Introduction Our future depends upon a strong, competitive workforce and upon citizens equipped to function in a world of great and growing complexity. Central to producing such results is a system of education that specifies what every student in each grade should know and be able to do in both mathematics and science. Educational excellence in these disciplines improves more than just the health of the disciplines themselves. It also improves the everyday lives and productivity of those who see the world through eyes enlightened by a knowledge of math and science. But America's world leadership in innovation is jeopardized if schools fail to respond to this challenge. Although educational leaders acknowledge these facts, a dangerous movement is stirring, determined to water down or even eliminate science instruction in elementary schools. On January 8, 2002, President George W. Bush signed into law the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, the sweeping new federal education reform bill that will affect virtually every aspect of K-12 education. NCLB raises accountability in math and reading skills for students, teachers, and administrators; beginning in SY 2005-2006, the law requires annual testing of both subjects in each grade from grades 3 through 8. Each of us involved in science education has almost certainly started to feel the downside of the law's initial emphasis on math and reading. NCLB's immediate adverse effects are evident whenever we are forced to defend science education against arising swell of attempts by local districts to devote ever more time to the two tested disciplines, or to defend it against national efforts to abandon science altogether in grades K through 6. Eventually, however, NCLB may actually benefit science education, although not immediately. Beginning in SY 2007-2008, NCLB requires all states to begin testing science annually in one grade in each of three grade ranges: 3-5, 6-9, and 10-12. But the sad truth is that, until then, teachers will teach only that which gets tested and administrators will promote only that which is needed to keep their schools off the list of underachieving schools. Challenges to Our Schools The growing numbers and percentage of our citizens who come from racial/ethnic minority groups, combined with gaps in achievement between majority and minority students, pose serious challenges to our schools. To counter these challenges, we must resolve to improve science programs at all levels if we hope to be able to supply professionals who are literate in those topics of science, technology, and mathematics so critical to our need for an expanding work force in the fields of science and engineering. In the next decade, the total U.S. work force is projected to expand by 12.3%; minorities will account for more than 40% of these new participants in the labor force (Fullerton, 1999). Such jobs will require workers who are capable of processing information quickly, critical thinking, problem solving, and teamwork. Unfortunately, many educators and parents-often unknowingly-act in such a way as to perpetuate the common myth that math and science are subjects for white males only. Females and minority students often experience active discouragement, few role models, and less access to advanced coursework as obstacles to choosing a career in science, technology, or engineering (Catsambis, 1995). As more schools are held accountable, will we see science instruction relegated to a regurgitation of facts (drill and kill), with the hands-on style of inquiry-based instruction confined to gifted students only? Unfortunately, such a scenario is not impossible, given the prevalent attitude among some educational leaders that not all children need to be systematically exposed to scientific content and methods from the earliest grades. …