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December 09, 2005
Boy, there's a shocker
Thomas B. Fordham Foundation - The State of State Science Standards 2005
Alabama, naturally, gets an F. Not even a high F -- a 42. Is anyone at all surprised? Some of this is for anti-evolutionism, but that's hardly all of it -- evolution was worth only three points.
I really want someone to ask about this at the gubernatorial debates. The Republicans in particular (Roy's head will explode) but the Democrats, with their ties to the teachers' union, won't come out of it too well either.
(Via Pharyngula.)
Posted by Mac Thomason at December 9, 2005 04:11 PM
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Comments
Louisiana got a B, which I was amazed by, though if Catholic schools were included, that would be why.
Posted by: Green Baron at December 9, 2005 04:53 PM
The funniest thing is what gets us docked so many points. Sure, we have the expected anti-evolution garbage, but that's only three points. What really hurts us are the physics and life science standards. Apparently, the minimum standards require children learn things that are actually incorrect.
Posted by: JoeyT at December 10, 2005 03:37 AM
Interesting. On first glance, it looks like this may be not so hard to fix, since it is an evaluation of the Alabama Course of Study. Fix the Course of Study, get a better score. They aren't evaluating what is actually being taught in classrooms, or what students are actually learning.
However, it sounds like that anti-evolution disclaimer really pisses off the evaluators, and may be costing Alabama more than just 3 points.
Posted by: LizW at December 10, 2005 11:23 AM
A few years ago I helped sort through my kids' school's science supplies and dug out some chemical or other the 6th grade science teacher wanted to do a crystal "experiment" with. I was horrified to see later that she had dissolved the only packet we had of this stuff in a huge bucket of water, because she had no idea how much a liter was and hadn't bothered to find out. "Don't you drink Coke?" I sputtered. Bless her heart, she was really an art teacher they'd stuck with this class. The next year my kids started home schooling.
Posted by: Del at December 13, 2005 08:35 AM