Since 2004, No Child Left Behind has driven both instruction and assessment across the country. Unfortunately it has also minimalized the instruction time spent on both Science and SS in elementary school because these scores did not affect your NCLB standing. As long as an elementary school was worrying about reading and math it could let Science and SS go and let the middle and high schools worry about it.
All that changed in 2007-2008. It marked the first school year that the federal No Child Left Behind law required school districts to test students in science. And while the scores must be released, there aren't any punishments built into the law like for failures in math and reading. If there were, Metro Nashville's nine years of earning a districtwide D in the subject would be drawing attention. More than 65 percent of individual Metro schools earned a D or F based on spring testing.
This is nothing new, for years teachers have talked about how little attention Science and SS got in the elementary grades and how ill-prepared they were for more difficult subjects in middle and high school. The reasons for this are fairly simple; in our district Science and SS standardized tests scores aren't reported and teachers aren't required to give the Science and SS standardized tests. No requirement= almost no teaching of the subject.
To change this science and SS will have to be a priority in elementary but don't hold your breath.
2 comments:
?? science is covered heavily at the elementary level here in PA!
as for the testing, those PSSA tests that they have in PA, are bogus. hell even i as a kid, made designs on the paper instead of filling in my real answers. did that with my college boards as well, shit gets old ........ i have a form of ADD as well, not much holds my attention for long, unless it's football or my ole man naked LMAO!
It's supposed to be here too but they don't even give science and SS grades in K-2 and when they get to 3rd some of the kids look at you with a blank stare when you start talking about science and SS.
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