According to The Nation’s Report Card released this week, only about one third of U.S. eighth-graders who took a national science exam in 2011 were “proficient,” a statistic called “unacceptable” by Gerry Wheeler, interim director of the National Science Teachers Association.
“Every job that pays a living wage includes STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) literacy and science as a component,” said Change the Equation’s Linda Rosen, but many schools and their districts have cut funding for science programs. According to a 2008 report from the Center on Education Policy, average instructional time for science decreased by one-third (or 75 minutes per week) since the implementation of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, also known as No Child Left Behind act, which requires standardized testing in reading and math.
Standards for science vary from state to state, which, according to STEM advocates, results in the lack of a uniform, comparable metric of science knowledge across the country.