Virginia Students Show Gains in Science

Race Disparities Persist In NAEP Test Results

More of Virginia's elementary and middle school students show a solid grasp of science than they did five years ago, and the state's students performed better overall than their peers nationwide, a recent report shows.

Virginia was one of only a handful of states showing significant improvement in science, according to the 2005 National Assessment of Educational Progress.

But considerable achievement gaps remain among racial groups. White and Asian students continue to outperform black and Hispanic students.

Forty percent of Virginia's public school fourth-graders understood Earth, physical and life sciences at grade level, up from 32 percent in 2000, NAEP results show. Nationwide, 29 percent of fourth-graders demonstrated proficiency, unchanged from 2000.

Thirty-five percent of Virginia's eighth-graders showed a solid grasp of science, up from 29 percent in 2000. Nationally, 30 percent of students who were tested showed proficiency, down from 33 percent.

"A state that makes that kind of gain needs to look at what it's doing right," said Mike Padilla, president of the Arlington-based National Science Teachers Association. "Gains of this nature have been difficult to come by."

Padilla acknowledged that the fact that more than half of students have not fully mastered science at their grade levels isn't necessarily something to cheer about.

"Virginia should be happy with those scores for now, but we should be looking to improve those," he said.

State education officials largely attributed the improved performance to the 11-year-old Standards of Learning accountability program.

"These results show that the commonwealth's schools are not sacrificing or shortchanging science instruction to meet federal benchmarks for reading and mathematics under the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001," said Patricia Wright, the state's acting superintendent of public instruction, in a statement.

Among racial groups, 53 percent of white fourth-graders showed science proficiency, compared with 50 percent of students of Asian descent, 22 percent of Hispanic students and 12 percent of black students. Forty-five percent of white eighth-graders were proficient in science, compared with 38 percent of Asians, 22 percent of Hispanics and 10 percent of black students.

All four of the racial categories significantly outperformed their counterparts nationally, but Wright said "much work needs to be done to further narrow, and ultimately close, the achievement gap."

Padilla said that schools and science teachers need to address such issues as an influx of Latino students still learning English and the persistent underperformance of black students.

"I don't have the answer, but if we don't address it as a nation and we don't resolve this, we're going to have economic problems," he said, echoing concerns of business and political leaders about eroding science achievement.

The NAEP results show that 80 percent of Virginia fourth-graders and 66 percent of eighth-graders have at least a basic understanding, or partial mastery, of science fundamentals in comparison with 66 percent and 57 percent, respectively, of fourth- and eighth-graders nationally.

State education officials said 5,463 Virginia public school students took the NAEP test, which measured students' conceptual understanding along with skills in scientific investigation and practical reasoning.

Also known as "The Nation's Report Card," the federal test is considered the best indicator of how students will perform over time and of how one state compares with another.