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Thursday, October 20, 2005
Science…Why wait?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jake politely asks if we can talk tomorrow about the editorial in today’s paper calling Georgia’s science curriculum “flabby” and calling for better qualified teachers.
Why wait? I have a list of eight blog topics I hope to get to soon…
Here’s the editorial, the gist of which is: “And what’s not being taught — or taught very well — across the state is science. This year, 29 percent of first-time test-takers failed the science portion (of the state graduation test). In comparison, only 5 percent of test-takers failed math and 3 percent flubbed language arts.
The high failure rate on the science test reflects a flabby science curriculum, too much rote instruction and too few qualified teachers.”
Note: Editorials reflect the majority opinion on the editorial board, and the editorial department is separate from the news department. Most education-related editorials are written by veteran journalist Maureen Downey, who covers the beat the same way I do: talking to parents, teachers and students, reading studies, calling up experts.
So, what do you say? Is the science curriculum flabby? Or is the science graduation test flawed? Is science getting stuck on the back burner as teachers in lower grades focus more on reading and math?
