United states fares poorly in science

How important is science to the America of today and tomorrow? Unparalleled. The war on terrorism, for example, will require advances in everything from microbiology to structural engineering to telecommunications. And, recession aside, huge increases in U.S. wealth and productivity in the last decade were largely hatched in laboratories.

In short, science remains of utmost importance to American economics and security. Eerily, a report released early last year by the U.S. Commission on National Security likened poor math and science results among American students to "a weapon of mass destruction" detonating in a U.S. city. Nonetheless, educators fear that Americans still don't give science enough respect. Those worries were underscored by the recently released results of the National Assessment of Educational progress, a quadrennial report card on how American students are faring. And when it comes to science, the answer is, "not very well." The performance of high school seniors in the test's science sector was down from 1996 levels, indicating that student understanding of the fundamentals of science is declining. Eighty-one percent of 12th-graders scored below proficient in science, as did 71 percent of 4th-graders and 68 percent of 8th-graders.

Gerry Wheeler, national director of the National Science Teachers Association, says the results prove that U.S. parents and school districts don't place nearly enough importance on science teaching, which he says should be the "fourth 'R." This lack of emphasis on science exacerbates an acute problem in education, he says: A lack of qualified teachers. Retention and recruitment of science teachers has been hit by the demand for scientific skills in industry, which lures away many good or potentially good teachers to better-- paid, private-sector jobs. Wheeler acknowledges that teacher pay will never achieve parity with industry, especially in highly compensated jobs in engineering and information technology, but says the gap should be greatly narrowed. Today's classroom salaries are an "injustice" that don't reflect the professional status of teachers, he adds. "As a result, many school are finding it harder and harder to keep good science teachers in the classroom." Proposed federal legislation will provide more money for differential pay, bonuses and merit pay, but it won't come close to bridging the salary gap. Wheeler says.

"It's safe to say that if science were considered an essential subject by the general public, additional support-and funds-would be allocated accordingly," Wheeler claims.