Science 'Proficiency' Wide Ranging Across States
Benchmark often falls below 'basic' on 'nation's report card'
A student in New Hampshire or Rhode Island is likely to have a much tougher time achieving a passing score on a state science exam than one in Virginia or Tennessee, a new analysis suggests. But don't blame it on the schools.
The reason is that states set the bar for science "proficiency" at widely varying levels, concludes the report , issued last week by the business coalition Change the Equation in collaboration with the American Institutes for Research.
Billed as the first-ever national analysis of how states define proficiency on science assessments, the study found that states have "radically different targets" for what their 8th graders should know and be able to do in science. And in many instances, what a state has deemed a proficient score is equivalent to below "basic" on the National Assessment of...
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