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Science Funding Worries Teachers They Say Less Federal Money for Their Advanced Training Will Hurt Students.

Posted on: Monday, 12 July 2004, 06:00 CDT

Janis Elliott has taught physics for 10 years at Bellevue West High School, but she still considers herself a student.

Elliott has sought more training for herself, taking courses on military weapons and cancer research from institutions in Bellevue and Omaha -- mostly with the help of federal grants and fellowships offered by companies.

But Elliott fears that federal money for such training is disappearing.

"We're losing ground," Elliott said. "It's hard to keep up without support for that."

It is a concern shared by teachers and scientists nationwide who met last week at a National Education Association meeting in Washington.

They are uneasy that a drop in federal funds for teacher training means that fewer students will take advanced courses and become scientists and science instructors.

"Science is on the back burner," Gerald Wheeler, a nuclear physicist and executive director of the National Science Teachers Association, told the Associated Press.

Elliott shares that concern, but she is seeing more students in her physics classes. In her first years at Bellevue, she taught physics for two periods. Now, she has seven.

The teachers' concerns were underscored by a recent survey on the state of science education that was commissioned by Bayer Corp. The pharmaceutical giant, a large employer of scientists, runs a program, "Making Science Make Sense," to advance science education for teachers and students.

Thirty-five percent of 1,000 new elementary and high school teachers who were interviewed for the survey said they "rely more on what they learned in their high school science courses than on what they learned in college to teach science today."

The Market Research Institute Inc. conducted the interviews by telephone. It had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percent.

If Nebraska students are affected by a lack of training for science teachers, test scores are not showing it.

Their science scores have held steady since 1996, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, which collects and analyzes student performance data.

In 2000, fourth-graders in Nebraska scored an average of 150 on the National Assessment of Educational Progress science test. That was a sliver above that grade level's national average of 148. Nebraska eighth-graders scored 157, above the national average of 149.

"I think without fail, we are always ahead of the national average in all areas," said Betty VanDeventer, spokeswoman for the State Education Department.

Iowa scores were like Nebraska's, with fourth-graders scoring 160 on average. The state did not report eighth-graders' scores that year.

States don't have to report science scores to the federal government; however, the No Child Left Behind law requires them to start doing so in 2007.

The law, the centerpiece of the Bush administration's education policy, is meant to improve student performance measuring progress with standardized testing. It stresses that schools must raise students' scores in reading and math or lose federal funding.

Wanda Clarke, president of the Nebraska Association of Teachers of Science, said so far, she believes the federal government's focus on reading and math isn't interfering with science. She noted that teachers improve students' skills in reading and math during science lessons.

"There's always that fear that when you start pushing some study areas in front of others that there's going to be some corners cut," said Clarke. "I'm not going to cry wolf yet."

Even as some bemoan the shrinking allotment of federal funds for science education, the U.S. Department of Energy is starting a new program to lure students into scientific fields.

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