The Thomas B. Fordham Institute released a comprehensive review of U.S. state science standards, the first since 2000. State science class standards lay out the course work and expectations for students in each grade - from kindergarten through high school.
For Virginians, the report gave some good news, as Virginia received an 'A', which shows that Virginia is serious about teaching science and educating their public school students. Other states that received 'A' grades are: California, South Carolina, Massachusetts, Indiana, New York, and New Mexico.
However, the report had more bad news than good, especially for other states and for the U.S. as a whole. Though the majority of states have reworked, often from scratch, their science standards since 2000, they have little to show for it. Also, it seems that the No Child Left Behind law has actually hindered quality education and has directed attention away from science. More bad news: there are more 'F' states than 'A' states. States that received an 'F' grade include: Alabama, Oregon, Hawaii, Montana, Nebraska, Wyoming, New Hampshire, Idaho, Texas, Wisconsin, Alaska, and Kansas. Of these, Kansas in particular it appears has actually worked very hard over the last several years to hurt public school education (witness the shenanigans of the previous School Board that was recently voted out), and their 'hard work' is reflected in their grade - amazingly, but not surprisingly, Kansas did the worst of any state with an 'F-'.
I find it very troublesome that so many states do such a poor job in educating children and with so much money wasted. On the other hand, I am sure that other countries, such as India and China, are very happy that the U.S. is not serious about science education - since those countries do seem to invest in quality education, future science and technology jobs will likely be filled quite readily by their workers if folks in the U.S. are not up to the task.
