The Death of Science? What We Risk in Our Rush Toward Standardized Testing and the Three R’s

"Ironically, even as inquiry methods and science resource centers stand poised to reinvigorate K-12 science education in America, the national movement emphasizing reading, writing, and mathematics instruction, as measured by high-stakes standardized tests, threatens to suppress the effort to make truly revolutionary progress in science education. Teachers and school administrators across the U.S. are facing enormous pressure to improve test scores in the basic skills areas. Consequently, they have been forced to reduce – or in some cases eliminate – the amount of class time devoted to science instruction." The authors point out that these consequences are especially unfortunate given that districts that have implemented this reform - a number of which are part of LSC projects – have seen improvement not only in science, but in math and reading scores as well.

Paper