Simple Science Difficult for Urban Students to Grasp, NAEP Study Finds
Elementary students in 10 city school systems struggled to perform simple investigations, interpret basic graphs and diagrams, and understand scientific classifications and relationships, concludes a first-ever report on the science skills of students in large urban districts released today.
Urban students at the middle school level also lagged behind their peers nationwide in their ability to perform relatively straightforward scientific tasks, according to the study, based on the results of a special sampling of the 2005 National Assessment of Educational Progress.
The Trial Urban District Assessment shows that students in all 10 districts participating in the study scored below nationwide averages in both the 4th and 8th grades. The average national 4th grade score, for example, was 149, on a 300-point scale. Scores among the 10 districts reached only as high as 147, notched by the Austin, Texas, school system, with the Chicago and Los Angeles districts each scoring...
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