ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, April 26, 1996 TAG: 9604260067
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: PETER APPLEBOME THE NEW YORK TIMES
GAINS ARE BEING MADE, despite what we mostly seem to hear, says the National Science Foundation.
Despite persistent gloom about the nation's schools, a comprehensive assessment of science and mathematics education from elementary to graduate levels finds significant progress in test scores, curriculum and academic preparation.
The report by the National Science Foundation, made public Thursday, found that elementary schools are devoting more time to math and science, more high school students are taking advanced science courses, and student achievement for all ethnic groups has improved over the past 15 years on standardized tests.
On the other hand, the report, which largely deals with material gathered from 1977 to 1993, found that achievement varies enormously among states and regions.
And the report finds continuing chasms in performance among racial groups. Black and Hispanic students, who make up a rapidly increasing percentage of the school population, continue to lag dramatically in test scores, participation in the teaching force and receiving degrees in math and science.
For example, the report said that of 366 colleges and universities that awarded doctorates in science and engineering, nearly two-thirds awarded no doctorates to black students, and more than half awarded none to Hispanic students. The number of black males receiving science and engineering doctorates, always a small fraction, has declined over the past 10 years; in 1992, blacks accounted for only 2 percent of such degrees.
Still, the report provides a much more positive view of the nation's schools and colleges and the direction in which they are headed than the conventional wisdom of incessant educational decline.
``Achievement is up, and there are clear signs that the system is changing for the better,'' said Luther Williams, assistant director for education and human resources at the National Science Foundation. ``I think that has to bode well for the future.''
But the signs of progress are more incremental than dramatic.
``The overall trends are up for all groups,'' said Terrence Russell, executive director of the Association for Institutional Research, an organization of higher education researchers based in Tallahassee, Fla.
``That doesn't mean there aren't big differences between different ethnic groups and different regions. Good is not best, but better is better than worse.''
The report, the second to result from 1991 legislation requiring the National Science Foundation to make biennial assessments of science and mathematics education in the nation, is a compilation of figures on tests, graduation rates, curriculum changes and other assessments, including national and international studies like the National Assessment of Educational Progress. It makes particular efforts to gauge recent progress in curriculum and standards.
On the NAEP test, the primary source on student achievement in the United States and most recently given in 1992, performance on math and science tests ``has improved slightly for all ages and racial ethnic groups over the past 15 years,'' the report said.
For example, the percentage of 13-year-old black students who were found proficient, scoring 250 out of 500 on the test, increased to 51 percent in 1992 from 29 percent in 1978.
And there are signs that students are taking more demanding courses. In 1980, fewer than 20 percent of the states required two or more years of mathematics; in 1992, 86 percent did.
In 1982, 79 percent of high school graduates had studied biology; in 1992, the figure was 93 percent. For beginning algebra, the figures were 68 percent in 1982 and 79 percent in 1992. For chemistry in the same period they were 32 percent and 56 percent. For advanced algebra, they were 37 percent and 56 percent.
Math scores for 13-year-olds in the best performing states - Iowa, North Dakota, Minnesota and Maine - ranked with Taiwan and Korea.
The lowest performing states - Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi - and the District of Columbia ranked with lowest rated nation, Jordan, of 15 surveyed.
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