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TAKS Math, Science Lagging: Area Students Again Fared Better in Reading, Writing, Social Studies

Posted on: Tuesday, 13 June 2006, 03:00 CDT

By Holly K. Hacker, The Dallas Morning News

Jun. 13--A new set of TAKS scores for Dallas-area school systems reveals that, once again, students struggle with math and science, especially in middle and high school.

Only six in 10 local students passed the ninth-grade math, 10th-grade math and 10th-grade science tests this spring on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills. Seven in 10 passed middle school math and science tests.

Students fared much better on most of the reading and all of the writing and social studies exams.

Those trends, based on preliminary scores for 45 area districts, mirror state averages -- as well as results from past years on the TAKS.

The disappointing math and science scores aren't a problem only in the Dallas area, or even in Texas.

International studies show that despite some gains in math and science, U.S. students lag their peers in many developed countries. It's a growing concern as American workers and companies compete globally.

Changes on horizon?

But Texas educators hope the trends may soon change. They note that math and science education is getting extra attention and money, through efforts under way in Austin and Washington.

"I believe it's going to help everyone raise their level of awareness of the need for math, science and technology education -- to believe in its importance," said Michelle King, mathematics director for Coppell Independent School District. "For us to be competitive, we have to have students that are competent, confident problem-solvers."

The 2006 TAKS scores reflect another long-running trend. A school system's success depends mostly on the kind of students it serves. A single factor -- family income -- explains more than 60 percent of the variation among district TAKS scores, a Dallas Morning News analysis found. The greater the proportion of poor students in a district, the lower scores tend to be.

And in most cases, there's also a link between lower test scores and the percentage of students learning English. Together, family income and English proficiency explain 70 percent of the variation in district scores, The News found.

Preliminary results also show that black and Hispanic students continue to perform below average, particularly in math and science.

"The message is, we have a lot of work to do. But we do see some incremental progress," said Gloria White, managing director of the Charles A. Dana Center at the University of Texas at Austin, which works to improve public education in Texas.

This is the fourth year of TAKS testing in public schools, and there's ever-increasing pressure to do well.

The state and federal government use the scores to rate schools and districts. Third-graders must pass reading, and fifth-graders must pass reading and math to advance to the next grade. Eleventh-graders must pass all four of their TAKS exams to graduate from high school.

And a new state plan will pay bonuses to teachers who improve their students' test scores.

In some cases, the growing emphasis on testing has led to cheating by teachers or students. The News found strong evidence in 2004 of cheating on TAKS tests, and a new report commissioned by the Texas Education Agency found suspicious scores at more than 600 campuses across the state on the 2005 tests.

This year, most local students aced the writing tests, taken in fourth and seventh grades. Nearly every 11th-grader passed the social studies test. Reading scores were generally good. So why are math and science so hard to master?

Myriad explanations

Teachers list plenty of reasons. Both subjects deal with abstract topics, like electrons and irrational numbers. New topics build on old ones, so kids who never mastered algebra will founder in geometry.

Plus, Dr. White said, there's a shortage of qualified math and science teachers. People with math and science degrees can earn a lot more in the private sector.

Science education has an added challenge in Texas: Students get tested in math every year from third through 11th grades. But science tests are given in only four grades -- and one of them, eighth grade, is new this year.

Under the state tests that preceded TAKS, science was tested in only eighth grade.

Schools once largely ignored science because it wasn't tested, said Kevin Fisher, past president of the Science Teachers Association of Texas.

"Now it's getting a lot of attention, and we've got a bit of catching up to do," said Mr. Fisher, who's also a science coordinator in the Lewisville school district.

Educators have long worried about the math and science performance of American students. Now, state and national leaders are backing their efforts with hundreds of millions of dollars.

In Texas, the Legislature recently decided to require four years of math and science to graduate from high school (starting with ninth-graders in 2007-08), up from three years.

Last year, Gov. Rick Perry announced a $71 million plan to establish 35 small schools with a focus on math, science and technology.

And in January, President Bush announced an "American Competitiveness Initiative" that includes $180 million to improve math and science education. The plan calls for training more math and science teachers; helping more low-income students pass Advanced Placement math and science exams; and better preparing students for middle school and high school math.

Make science relevant

Mr. Fisher believes schools need to make science -- his area of expertise -- more relevant.

"Science classes need to be very engaging so students can see practical applications. A lot of people are turned off to science simply because the way they've been taught is very boring, almost elitist," he said.

Some local districts report improvements in math and science.

Coppell posted the biggest two-year gains of the region in seventh- and eighth-grade math. Nearly all students passed those tests, and half scored high enough to earn the coveted "commended" rating this year.

District officials said they focused their energies on middle school math, where scores had lagged. This year, they doubled the amount of math instruction in middle schools, from 50 minutes to 100 minutes a day.

The Richardson district pulled the region's biggest two-year gains in fifth-grade science. The passing rates have gone from 67 percent in 2004 to 84 percent this year. The commended rates rose from 16 percent to 38 percent.

This year, the district's fifth-grade teachers reviewed all the science concepts their students are supposed to have learned -- such as the order of the planets in third grade and density of objects in fourth grade. That keeps the topics fresh in students' minds.

Comparing results from year to year can be tricky because some tests get harder to pass. Take the 11th-grade scores for local districts. Over the last three years, students have had to answer more questions correctly to pass.

So it might not be a surprise that passing rates are down in math, science and social studies for 11th grade.

Said Mr. Fisher: "The rigor of the test increases each year, and sometimes when it looks like you're not making progress, you really are."

E-mail hhacker@dallasnews.com

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Dallas Morning News

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: The Dallas Morning News

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