[Phys-L] Pressure From New Tests Leads Educators to Debate How Best to Teach Science

[Richard Hake <rrhake@EARTHLINK.NET>]

In a recent Wall Street Journal article titled "What's the Right
Formula? Pressure From New Tests Leads Educators to Debate How Best
to Teach Science, Rob Tomsho (2006) wrote: [bracketed by lines
"TTTTTTTTT. . . ."; my inserts at
"[. . .]"]:

TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT
In 2004, the National Science Teachers Association recommended making
[inquiry-based] strategies "the centerpiece of the science
classroom." Texas, for example, now mandates that high-school science
students spend at least 40% of their time on hands-on lab and field
work.

But just as the new approach gains traction, it's colliding with
another educational trend. States and the federal government are
pushing to standardize science education and to test students'
progress against those standards. Forty-two states now test students
in at least three grades, up from 24 states in 2002. The leading
federal test, the National Assessment of Educational Progress, is
taking a step back from the inquiry-based model and rewriting its
next test to include fewer questions based on student experimentation
and more questions based on material typically taught in lectures and
textbooks.
And there are more tests to come. Starting next year, under the No
Child Left Behind Act . . .
<http://www.ed.gov/nclb/landing.jhtml?src=pb>], states must test for
achievement in science annually. . . .[at
<http://www.ed.gov/nclb/methods/science/science.html> it is stated
that "the new law also requires that beginning in 2007 states measure
students' progress in science at least once in each of three grade
spans (3-5, 6-9, 10-12) each year."]. . . States that don't comply
can be denied federal funds. Some policy makers and educators fear
that students whose science education is heavily weighted toward the
inquiry method will score poorly.

Others fear that the focus on testing will set back an important
movement in education. . . .[see e.g. Hake (2004, 2005, 2006)]. . . .
"There will be a major drive back toward direct instruction," says
Wayne Carley, executive director of the National Association of
Biology Teachers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT

To see Tomsho's complete report click on <http://tinyurl.com/apmp9>
and scroll to the APPENDIX.

I thank Keith Tipton, Physhare list manager, for bringing Tomsho's
(2006) timely report to my attention.

Richard Hake, Emeritus Professor of Physics, Indiana University
24245 Hatteras Street, Woodland Hills, CA 91367
<rrhake@earthlink.net>
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~hake>
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~sdi>

". . . I will look primarily at our traditions and practices of early
schooling through the age of twelve or so. There is little to come
after, whether of joys or miseries, that is not prefigured in these
years."
   David Hawkins in "The Roots of Literacy" (2000), p. 3.


REFERENCES
Hake, R.R. 2004. "Direct Science Instruction Suffers a Setback in
California - Or Does It?" AAPT Announcer 34(2): 177; online at
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~hake/DirInstSetback-041104f.pdf> (420 KB)
[about 160 references and 180 hot-linked URL's]. A pdf version of the
slides shown at the meeting is also available at ref. 33 or can be
downloaded directly by clicking on
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~hake/AAPT-Slides.pdf> (132 kB).

Hake, R.R. 2005. "Will the No Child Left Behind Act Promote Direct
Instruction of Science?" Am. Phys. Soc. 50: 851 (2005); APS March
Meeting, Los Angles, CA. 21-25 March; online as ref. 36 at
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~hake>, or download directly by
clicking on
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~hake/WillNCLBPromoteDSI-3.pdf> (256
kB).

Hake, R.R. 2006. "Why NCLB May Propagate Direct Science Instruction,"
online at
<http://listserv.nd.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0601&L=pod&O=A&P=6041>. Post
of 8/9 January 2006 to AERA-B, AERA-J, AERA-L, ARN-L, ASSESS, EDDRA,
EvalTalk, Math-Learn, Physhare, Phys-L, PhysLrnR, POD,
TeachingEdPsych, & TIPS.

Tomsho, R. 2006. "What's the Right Formula? Pressure From New Tests
Leads Educators to Debate How Best to Teach Science" Wall Street
Journal, 19 January; online at <http://tinyurl.com/cn4kx> for a few
days and more permanently for educators at <http://tinyurl.com/apmp9>
(scroll to the APPENDIX).
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