Last In Science

Yikes.  The urban NAEP science scores are out today and not even the district's nonpoor students do well on them compared to other big cities (Chicago students behind urban peers in science | Chicago Tribune.)  Over all, "4th-graders posted the lowest average score compared with their counterparts in the other cities. The 8th-graders came in next to last, beating out only Los Angeles."

UPDATE:

Chicago pupils lag in U.S. science test Tribune
Chicago Public Schools pupils lag behind their peers in other large urban school districts on national science exams, according to data released Wednesday.

CPS kids lag badly in science Sun-Times
Nearly two-thirds of Chicago fourth-graders who took a national test last year failed to display even the most basic level of science knowledge and skills. By eighth grade, that number jumped to 72 percent, also putting that group toward the bottom of the pack.

Most Students in Big Cities Lag Badly in Basic Science New York Times
A least half of eighth graders tested in science failed to demonstrate even a basic understanding of the subject in 9 of 10 major cities, and fourth graders, the only other group tested, fared little better, according to results released here Wednesday.

Comments

a movement for social justice?

Dorothy Brown or Bill "Dock" Walls should have something to say about this.
CMSI should too.

This is worse than bad. CMSI, what say you? It will take 5 more years? Blame the schools for not implementing? The district leaders for not holding schools accountable? What gives?

oh, please. not the CMSI-bashing bandwagon again. they're not the ones out there doing the teaching. they're just telling you how to do it. (joke!) anyone got a non-CMSI explanation? we need some new scapegoats.

[Julie Woestehoff]

At least this is being reported. Chicago's NAEP science scores are right in line with the math and reading scores which were released earlier this year with barely a word in the Chicago press.

2005 scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress rank Chicago 8th out of 11 large urban school districts in overall reading scores and 10th out of 11 in overall math scores.

Seriously, someone needs to look at the Gartzman/Lach leadership (or lack of) over the past five years. This is an amazing story of failure and misspent money. And these two came in like gangbusters with all the answers and heaps of criticism and disdain for all that had been done before. Gartzman was canned and now Lach should be tossed out also. I will be checking his blog for the propaganda he will, no doubt, be throwing out.
Five years and they managed to gain the distinction of being the worst.

is there any evidence that things have gotten worse in recent years in science? were they ever any better?

11:53 You recommend Lach be tossed out. Why not go to the top and toss out the supposed leaders, Duncan etc. BEW is providing excuses, their focus has been on reading.

Why should focusing on reading be an acceptable excuse?
Can’t children practice reading by reading about science? With all of the multimedia and technology available there should be plenty of vehicles for covering science.
SES can’t be blamed because the well-to-do in the district did poorly too. As noted, performance wasn’t extraordinary in reading either.

[yellowdart]

Oh sure - it's easy to blame the CMSI. How about we blame the schools too? Science has traditionally been disregarded because it wasn't used as a measure of school success. Not surprisingly, most schools don't dedicate much time to science.

Lach is tackling the problem, which is the fact that teachers lack subject matter knowledge of science (and math) in the elementary grades, even in the upper grades. It simply wasn't taught in teacher prep programs. Many teachers did not do well as students in math and science themselves. If they had, many of them would have done into pre-med or business schools.
The more difficult content area exams for teacher certfication will help with that problem, but it seems that Lach's effort to provide PD assistance and tuition to teachers to become proficient in math/science is the only rational strategy available. I'll give him a medal for admitting what the problem is/was and chipping away at the solution as well.

the CST wrote: "Currently, only about 6 percent of CPS elementary teachers are certified in science." How many teachers were certified before CMSI PD or 4-5 years ago? Does the current 6 percent indicate progress? How does this 6 % cert. rate compare with more successful districts?

I have graduate degrees and I got the first question (for fourth graders) wrong.

11:39 - Lach has been there for years and years. He is not tackling the problem. There is no excuse for this performance. Even those who are blaming the emphasis on reading or the lack of qualified teachers are wrong. Every urban system that is doing better than CPS has the same emphasis on reading and the same problems with finding good teachers. CMSI has been a total disaster and the leadership has been, and continues to be, clueless and arrogant.
It is sickening to me to read comments from the CPS apologists for the travesty of CMSI. The excuses are laughable.

[southside soldier]

CMSI is an easy target, but I think the real problems lie elsewhere. I've been a regular participant at CMSI and have found the p.d to be very good. Where there is a disconnect is the lack of endorsed teachers in science, particularly as you move towards the early grades, along with the requirement that schools outlay a significant chunk of cash for the CMSI kits. Furthermore, improved science education must come from the instructional leader of the school, and many principals either lack the knowledge to lead a science transformation or are so focused on keeping the reading and math scores up that they chose to let the soldiers do all the work without providing the leadership to bring about change. Besides, principals have their hands full these days with the academic and social issues of the students and are reluctant to release all those teachers to attend p.d (too disruptive to the learning process) . Finally, there are too many competing agendas coming from CPS. If your school is trying to implement CRI and CMSI in both math and science, that's three initiatives and something is going to lose out. Guess which one?

[anniesullivan]

7:46 True statement The problem in the elementary schools especially on the overcrowded southwest side is that there is no available space for a science lab. The science teacher is on a cart and materials are non-existent. Hands-on science is very hard to do with 36 kids in a room and one adult.

The leadership of math and science has no elementary experince and what is BEW thinking having him as the leader of that department? Question If you are a school that is not using CMSI materials what kind of support do they get?

You go, Annie - finally the truth! And what did the Board serve up to the long suffering children of the Southwest Side yesterday? Charter schools - Willis Wagons for the Millenium!

[southside soldier]

14th place could never provide support for an entire district if they didn't have a standardized curriculum. However, maybe CPS leadership on Clark St. should have the area literacy, math, and science coaches integrate their school support so that schools not participating in CMSI could learn how to teach science literacy. I'm an advocate for hands-on science, but teachers and students are struggling with science because they are unfamiliar with informational text instruction and learning. I believe this is where those poor scores are really coming from. Science should be part of the 9-11 literacy block followed up with simple, inexpensive hands-on activities to support informational text instruction. This would help get around the issues of content knowledge, time, space, and cash flow. This is a missed opportunity by CPS and area leadership.

Well I assume that we all saw the Mayor's comments on the science test scores at his PR conference yesterday. He said he has a plan to address the science problem.But he gave us no details. The plan goes like this, call up Duncan bitch him out, tell him to get on top of this. The wise women and men meet and in a few months we get a new science progam for the district developed by Kaplan maybe, or another vendor.

The plan will no doubt be shifting instructional time from either reading or math, most likely math at the elementary level. Additional staff will be shifted to science. Then we will see a decline in test scores for math.

What we have here is the result of education by politics. We have a non-educator, political appointee as CEO, called CEO by the way because he lacks appropriate certification as did Mr. Vallas. We as a school district have lost our way, we have become a district of basic skills drills, and high end preps at the other end. This is my last year teaching, I thank god for that.

Still looking/listening for some comment on this from mayoral candidates.

Science I got question #1 wrong too, but answer B was
my second choice.
I wonder if a student answered "spying" to the 8th grade question about the use of human-made satellites,if this was an exceptable answer. To come up with --three distinct answers here is pushing it. Two
answers should have been correct. If students
answered "cell phones and televison" to this prompt,
that's "communications"; so it this 2 answers or 1.
Is the test a little off? Note I said "little."

[instructivist]

As others have pointed out, the huge chunks alloted to reading could easily include reading science books. Instead, the time is consumed mostly by fiction, some of it quite vapid.

A huge problem that prevents effective math and science education is the so-called CMSI initiative. CMSI is purely constructivist and deprives students of foundational knowledge. Math and science education will remain a joke until some content is brought into the classroom.

[1.04]

Surprise

Look at how many people, just in this blog, knew about the CSMI.They did the usual
Job of eating off the grant, publishing the PROGRAM, love that word,
And guess what the kids got nothing but the crumbs left by the board
Vultures.

[Marty McGreal]

I understand people are growing impatient with CMSI. Five years for a district-wide initiative is not that long. Within a school, reform efforts take as long to show improvement. If the program is bad then I understand canning it. If not, fix the flaws and give it some real time. I would be interested in seeing one district-wide initiative being followed through with in CPS.

In my limited contact with CMSI, it appears to be extremely teacher-centered. I believe Lach’s main focus was preparing teachers and helping all science and math teachers get together on curriculum.

Also, remember that this program still has to contend with the bureaucracy. CMSI was limited in scope as far as how information flowed. In high schools, the information had to travel through education officers, Office of High School Programs, AIO’s, area science coaches, and department chairs before they reached all science teachers. This is a big part of the problem. The program might be successful if CMSI support could go directly to science teachers at a school.