Report Calls for Improvement in K-8 Science Education

A report released yesterday by a committee on science education says K-8 classes are in "urgent need" of improvement, just as schools must for the first time assess students on the subject under the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

The report by the National Research Council, the main operating agency of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering, said that the past 15 years of reform have produced few positive results and that science education too often is based on faulty notions of how children learn.

"We are underestimating what young children are capable of as students of science — the bar is almost always set too low," the report said. "Moreover, the current organization of science curriculum and instruction does not provide the kind of support for science learning that results in deep understanding of scientific ideas and an ability to engage in the practices of science."

By Valerie Strauss
Washington Post Staff Writer

Full Story: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/21/AR2006092101570.html