Florida Eighth Graders Score Low In Math And Science
According to a report released by an international assessment, Florida eighth-graders scored slightly worse than their peers across the United States in math and science, reported the Orlando Sentinel.
Every four years a sample test is given to fourth and eighth-grade students in more than three dozen countries. According to the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study U.S. students in fourth and eighth grade continue to trail Singapore and Hong Kong.
The U.S. scores come from more than 20,000 students who took the test at hundreds of schools. Each school was randomly picked to administer the assessment, according to Stephen Provasnik, the research coordinator of the study.
For each subject area and grade level students from other countries, usually Asia, outscored their peers elsewhere. While the U.S. students performed better than average, they didn’t perform as well as the top group.
U.S. eighth-graders have improved in math and science since the 2011 test was administered and fourth-graders have remained about the same.
Florida Scores Compared To U.S. Scores
According to Alix Miller, a spokesman for the Florida Department of Education, Florida used funds from the Race to the Top federal initiative to get a separate sample of Florida student’s results in the study, said the Orlando Sentinel.
The results showed that Florida eighth-graders performed lower than the rest of the U.S. in math and science with fourth-graders faring about the same.
Peggy Car, the acting commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics, stated in a press release to the Orlando Sentinel that the report compared disparities between boys and girls in the U.S. as well.
There was no noted significant difference between eighth-grade boys and girls in math, and a small difference in science.
12th grade boys scored 46 points higher than girls in physics and 30 points higher than girls in advanced math.