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Author Topic: Report Says States Aim Low in Science Classes
Snuckles
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 2764

posted 08 December 2005 09:00 AM      Profile for Snuckles   Author's Homepage        Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
By MICHAEL JANOFSKY
Published: December 8, 2005

WASHINGTON, Dec. 7 - Nearly half the states are doing a poor job of setting high academic standards for science in public schools, according to a new report that examined science in anticipation of 2007, when states will be required to administer tests in the subject under President Bush's signature education law.

The report, released Wednesday by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, suggests that the focus on reading and math as required subjects for testing under the federal law, No Child Left Behind, has turned attention away from science, contributing to a failure of American children to stay competitive in science with their counterparts abroad.

The report also appears to support concerns raised by a growing number of university officials and corporate executives, who say that the failure to produce students well-prepared in science is undermining the country's production of scientists and engineers and putting the nation's economic future in jeopardy.


Read it here.

Read the Fordham Foundation's report here.

And weep for the state of Kansas (which received an 'F') here.


From: Hell | Registered: Jun 2002  |  IP: Logged
Nanuq
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 8229

posted 08 December 2005 11:15 AM      Profile for Nanuq   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
No problem. I'm sure it's only a matter of time before the US legislature amends the laws of physics to make them easier to learn.
From: Toronto | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
Hephaestion
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Babbler # 4795

posted 08 December 2005 01:43 PM      Profile for Hephaestion   Author's Homepage        Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
The report also appears to support concerns raised by a growing number of university officials and corporate executives, who say that the failure to produce students well-prepared in science is undermining the country's production of scientists and engineers and putting the nation's economic future in jeopardy.


Notice what they're really worried about... "the nation's economic future". Not society in general, not the advancement of knowledge, but the *economy*. The Almighty Dollar.

Mind you, who cares about "the future" anyway, at least after The Rapture, anyway? I mean, after that, it's all going to hell in a handbasket no matter what, right?

You gotta learn to think like these whack-os to understand why they act the way they do. They don't give a shit about "the future". At least, nothing in between immediate profits and immortality, anyway...

From: goodbye... :-( | Registered: Dec 2003  |  IP: Logged
Contrarian
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 6477

posted 08 December 2005 03:52 PM      Profile for Contrarian     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Well, it's "university officials and corporate executives" who are raising that argument, a) because they are corporate drones, and b) because that is the argument which will appeal to political drones who would not understand the concept of academic integrity.
From: pretty far west | Registered: Jul 2004  |  IP: Logged
abnormal
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 1245

posted 08 December 2005 04:58 PM      Profile for abnormal   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Contrarian,

I'm not sure what academic integrity has to do with this.

Unfortunately, absent a sufficient supply of scientists and engineers, all the high end jobs will end up in Bangalore or some such.


From: far, far away | Registered: Aug 2001  |  IP: Logged

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