A Formal Response to the Report of the Florida Senate PreK-12 Committee Report on High School Graduation Standards in Science
A letter I’ve sent to Senator Nancy Detert, Chair of the Florida Senate PreK-12 Committee, is displayed below. The letter was sent November 8.
Taken individually, this letter will not make much of a splash. However, we know from experience that when a large number of Florida’s science faculty make a collective statement – as we did last spring in our letter to Governor Crist and this summer in our white paper – it makes a difference in the thinking of our state’s policy-makers. Last week’s announcement that Florida’s application to the “Race to the Top” program will include a proposal for end-of-course tests in chemistry, physics and Earth science (none of which was on the state’s radar screen last spring) is an illustration of this.
If Senator Detert receives a blizzard of letters on her committee’s position against raising graduation requirements, it might matter. We know that op-eds in the state’s newspapers and leading education blogs matter. We need to start being more active as a community in these ways.
Dear Senator Detert:
I am writing to comment on the Interim Report titled “Review the Effect of State High School Graduation Requirements on Student Preparation for Postsecondary Education and the Workforce.” The need to expand opportunities for students to earn bachelor’s degrees in STEM fields is urgent, and the State of Florida should move immediately to focus attention and resources on the gateway high school courses for STEM fields, which recent research demonstrates are physics and calculus. The go-slow approach advocated in the Interim Report is not consistent with the urgency of the state’s long-term economic prospects.
A report published by University of South Florida researchers in 2007 on research conducted using the state-of-the-art data warehouses maintained by the Florida Department of Education addresses the question raised in the title of the Interim Report in a very direct way. The USF study, published in the Journal of Education of Students Placed at Risk (Volume 12, Issue 3, Pages 243-270) examines how “high school science and mathematics course-taking creates pathways toward future baccalaureate degree attainment in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) majors.”
The USF report reached two primary conclusions about high school course-taking. The first was that “Enrollment and attainment in physics and calculus is particularly important for all students with respect to obtaining a STEM degree down the road.” The second was that “minority students who are prepared for STEM degree attainment by virtue of taking high-level science and mathematics courses, particularly calculus, chemistry, and physics at the highest levels, are more likely to persist through STEM coursework in college than their White counterparts and obtain a STEM degree.”
In other words, if increasing the pool of STEM bachelor’s degree graduates is indeed a priority for Florida’s education system, then it is also a high priority to make sure that every high school student –particularly in Title 1 schools – has access to physics and calculus courses that are staffed by highly qualified teachers. And we must move immediately to make sure this happens.
The Interim Report also set a list of preconditions for raising high school graduation requirements in science. Two of these preconditions appear to be direct challenges to the science faculty of Florida’s colleges and universities. We are already addressing these challenges.
The report said that “science and mathematics instruction must be revised to make instruction relevant to students. This requires universities, colleges, education preparation institutes, and school districts to emphasize the actual art of instruction in their curricula for the preparation of teachers.”
Some of Florida’s college and university science faculty are scouring the nation for the best research-based teaching practices, which all involve engaging students actively in our science classrooms and laboratories. One example is the adoption of inquiry-driven SCALE-UP studio physics programs at Florida State University and Florida Gulf Coast University. These programs are based on research performed at North Carolina State University and adopted at many institutions throughout the nation.
Your report also said that we must “aggressively recruit STEM educators from postsecondary institutions.” We are doing this by leading the effort to improve degree programs for pre-service teachers within our own science departments, talking with strong students in our courses about the importance of teaching to our society, and attempting to collaborate with those in our colleges of education and the Florida Department of Education who are officially charged with these duties.
Thank you for your consideration and service.
Sincerely,
Paul Cottle
Professor of Physics
Tags: Florida Legislature, High School Graduation Standards, Teacher Preparation, Assessment, Florida Department of Education
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