Chicago 8th-graders score near bottom in national science tests
Overall, CPS eighth-graders outscored Detroit, tied Cleveland, but fell behind peers in New York, Miami, Houston and Boston. But among African-American eighth-graders, Chicago’s science scores tied for the worst.
“As an African-American male, that make me sad and angry,’’ said Walter Taylor, a former CPS eighth-grade science teacher who now serves as a Chicago Teachers Union teacher facilitator.
...Taylor noted that many heavily African-American CPS schools are on academic probation, so teachers there are pushed to emphasize reading and math over science and social studies because of the huge factor reading and math test results play in whether a school is closed. Even in science class, students may be reading about Madame Curie rather than doing experiments, Taylor said.
John Loerh, CPS acting science director, agreed that the federal No Child Left Behind law has so “ratcheted up’’ the consequences of reading and math that schools are marginalizing science and social studies.
“In what limited time is left for science, it’s difficult for our teachers to give due justice to those things that develop critical thinking,’’ Loerh said.
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