California Students Testing Well Below Average In Science
SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) -- A new federal reports show California students still test well below the national average when it comes to science.
The National Assessment of Educational Progress, the only nationally standardized test, showed just 24 percent of California fourth and eighth graders tested proficient in science.
That's 13 percentage points below the national average for fourth graders, and 10 points below for eighth graders.
That put the state's fourth-graders a third to last on the national list, and eighth graders fifth to last, just above Hawaii, Alabama, New Mexico and Mississippi.
The report, released late Tuesday, looks at results of the National Assessment for Educational Progress in science, taken by students in the fourth, eighth and 12th grades last year, and compares them with scores from the last times the tests were administered.
Nationally, results for fourth, and eighth-graders showed statistically significant gains, while 12th-grade scores stagnated.
Of all the ethnic groups tested in California, only Latino students made significant progress — with fourth-grade scores going up from 121 to 128.
