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Texas Schools' Knowledge, Skills Test Increases Focus on Science Classes

Posted on: Sunday, 3 August 2003, 06:00 CDT

Aug. 3--When Texas elementary students return to school this month, they will find that science has become more than the typical grow-a-bean-sprout-in-a-cup experiment.

Fort Worth students who fall behind in science are likely to find themselves in Saturday classes. Carroll school officials plan to teach children how to come up with scientific questions for discussion. Students will then learn the science necessary to answer their queries.

And teachers will find that the state is now willing to pay them extra if they get additional training in science.

The emphasis isn't coincidental. After years of consternation about test scores that lag behind industrial nations such as England, Australia, Japan and Canada, educators and lawmakers in the United States have begun emphasizing science.

Texas raised the stakes with the introduction of the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills test. TAKS has a science component, which tripped up many districts during the first round of tests this spring. Incoming high school juniors who fail the TAKS will have to retake it their senior year -- they can't graduate if they don't pass.

"I went to school around the time Sputnik went up and the science community panicked," Dinah Chancellor, Carroll schools' math and science curriculum coordinator, said about the satellite that the Soviet Union launched in 1957. "They were saying, 'Our kids won't be able to compete in math and science with the Russians.' Still, I was not taught science hands-on, and that really did not change until very recently."

Many teachers across the state spent part of the summer brushing up on the state's mandated science curriculum and learning innovative and interesting ways to teach it.

Teachers say they like the attention but admit to feeling pressured to make sure students are learning.

"On one side you were sort of relieved that you didn't have the test because you didn't have the scrutiny," said Roberta Young, a science teacher at Arlington's Gunn Junior High School who has taught for 30 years. "On the other side, if you've got a TAKS test hanging over your head, funding and time have to be spent because the district wants you to do well."

Some teachers in high schools with block scheduling worry that they don't have enough time to teach everything that students need to know. Under block scheduling, the classes meet for 90 minutes every other day, rather than 55 minutes every day.

The result of block scheduling is that "we lost almost six weeks of class time," said Jane Borland, an award-winning Arlington biology teacher.

"There's a huge amount of material they want us to have the kids actively engaged in, but the reality is there's not enough time to do all those things and cover all of the required elements of the test," she said.

Still, area school district officials are optimistic that new or improved programs will keep their scores at or above the state average.

Fort Worth school officials are planning to expand the Saturday Science Conference for kids and teachers, making it available for any student in need of remedial help.

Wilma Stewart and Renee Gordon, elementary and middle school science curriculum specialists respectively, coordinated the program.

Before the TAKS, students spent about four hours on two Saturdays at the conference focusing on either earth science or physical science lab work and tutorials, Stewart said. Stewart said teachers were invited to observe so they could take the lessons back to their classrooms.

Dorothy Thomas, science program director for Fort Worth schools, credits the pilot program with much of the success that the district's fifth-graders have had with the TAKS.

"Actually the students taking the fifth-grade TAKS outscored the students taking the 10th- and 11th-grade TAKS," she said.

Thomas said 71 percent of the district's fifth-graders passed the science portion of the exam, compared with 57 percent of 10th-graders and 59 percent of 11th-graders.

Carroll school district students performed extremely well on the science portion of the TAKS, with more than 95 percent of each group -- fifth-, 10th- and 11th-graders -- passing.

Chancellor attributes their success to science lab teachers who have been providing lessons at elementary schools for eight years.

"The science lab teachers support what they're teaching in the classroom," Chancellor said. "Kids have to experience science. You can't just open a book and teach good science."

Arlington school officials used a $250,000 grant from National Semiconductor to buy science kits -- lessons complete with scales, weights, wood pieces or magnets based on the subject -- that rotate among its 49 elementary schools.

"We started the push on science three years ago, to make sure we were getting our kids ready for it," said Marcia Adams, the Arlington district's science curriculum coordinator. "We just wanted to try to stay ahead of the game. The big thing about elementary school is that there are so many of them and they all teach science.

We're constantly looking for ways to improve science instruction in elementary school."

Based on the district's TAKS scores, the kits may have given fifth-graders an edge. Seventy-six percent passed, compared with the state average of 74 percent. Seventy-six percent of Arlington's 10th-graders and 77 percent of the 11th-graders passed the exam.

The Legislature recognized the importance of science during its regular session by approving the Master Science Teacher Certification program, which is similar to programs already in place for reading and math teachers.

Under the program, teachers would get the additional certification after taking classes. Those who agree to teach science and to be mentors for other teachers would be eligible for an annual $5,000 stipend. The legislation was sponsored by Rep. Kent Grusendorf, R-Arlington.

Grusendorf said the reading and math master teacher programs improved student performance on the now-defunct TAAS by bolstering the experience of the teachers. He said he is confident that the science initiative will do the same for science and TAKS.

Chancellor said additional training benefits educators, particularly elementary teachers who must teach all subjects.

"I don't want to imply that the teachers don't do their jobs, but sometimes they're just not comfortable with the content and often weren't taught that well themselves," Chancellor said.

Districts are seeking to strengthen their science curricula even as many of their budgets are being squeezed by a beleaguered property-tax-based funding system. A major challenge is money.

Because of all the lab equipment and consumable materials needed for experiments, science is one of the most expensive subjects to teach.

For example, the kits purchased by the Arlington district cost about $600 each and the district purchased 270 of them -- 90 each of three lessons -- magnetism, measurement and electricity -- for a total of $162,000. Before the lessons are rotated to the next school, the consumable items must be restocked at additional cost.

Steve Brown, Arlington's associate superintendent of finance, said there is no way the district could have purchased the science kits without the grant. He said the district allotted $214,768 for nonpayroll science expenditures this fiscal year. If the district had purchased 270 kits this year without the grant, it would have been left with $52,768 to spend on science supplies and equipment for nearly 70 campuses.

While not naming names, several science coordinators said they know of small districts that had little or no money for refurbishing science labs. Sharon McIlroy, supervisor for science curriculum programs for the Austin school district, said that even her district struggles at times. Austin, like Arlington and Fort Worth, is one of the 10 largest districts in the state.

"We use grants, community partnerships anything we can to help enrich our science programs," McIlroy said. "No possibility is overlooked. We are not too proud to beg."

Another concern for some science educators is the amount of time between the tests, until the eighth-grade test is put in place.

"You go from fifth grade to 10th grade and then you have the high-stakes test in 11th grade," said Jan Harmon, curriculum coordinator for Mansfield schools.

Irene Pickhardt, assistant director of science for the Texas Education Agency, said the eighth-grade test could be developed before 2007.

If states are to comply with the federal No Child Left Behind Act, the test must be added by 2007.

"It would be ideal if we could have the eighth-grade TAKS in place for them by 2005 when they're eighth-graders so we can get data on this cadre of students all the way along," Pickhardt said. "Of course that would take moving mountains, but it might happen."

To pass the science part of the TAKS, fifth-grade students will have to answer 67.5 percent of questions correctly (27 of 40), 10th-graders will have to answer 56.4 percent correctly (31 of 55) and 11th-graders will have to answer 43.6 percent correctly (24 of 55).

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(c) 2003, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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