FDOE Bureau Chief Documents His Claim That “Florida students are pretty much last in the nation for science”

Leslie Postal from the Orlando Sentinel blog School Zone has posted the power point presentation delivered to the Florida Organization for Instructional Leadership (FOIL) by FDOE Bureau Chief for Curriculum and Instruction Todd Clark. The presentation, titled “State of the State for Florida Student Achievement,” reaches a conclusion on science that Florida students are “pretty much last in the nation” in this area.

Dr. Clark supported this assertion with a stack of statistics, among which are that in 2008 Florida was:

49^th in the nation in the average score on the ACT science section

47^th in the nation in pass rate (3 or higher) on AP science tests

45^th in the nation in pass rate (3 or higher) on the AP biology test

In addition, the fractions of students who earned the highest grade of 5 on the FCAT Science exams, which are given in 5^th, 8^th and 11^th grades were:

5^th grade: 2%

8^th grade: 2%

11^th grade: 1%

No African-American students at any of these grade levels scored a 5 statewide (the St. Pete Times blog link is here). Not a single student.

I will add here that Dr. Clark is intelligent, thoughtful and passionate about his work. His candor demonstrates considerable courage.

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This entry was posted on November 19, 2009 at 7:51 pm and is filed under Florida Department of Education. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.

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5 Comments on “FDOE Bureau Chief Documents His Claim That “Florida students are pretty much last in the nation for science””

Will Florida have the guts to adopt the Common Core standards in science when they arrive? « Bridge to Tomorrow Says:

July 28, 2010 at 12:18 pm
[...] in science. And an official of the FDOE admitted in public last fall that Florida is “pretty much last in the nation” in science right [...]

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RTTT and STEM in Florida: Will it matter? « Bridge to Tomorrow Says:

August 26, 2010 at 11:40 am
[...] an official in the Florida Department of Education: “Florida students are pretty much last in the [...]

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Would a Rhee-led Florida K-12 system do better in science? « Bridge to Tomorrow Says:

December 6, 2010 at 12:41 pm
[...] Florida mired in the position of “pretty much last in the nation in science,” it is worth making an educated guess about the future of the state’s K-12 science program [...]

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Minority Science and Math FCAT scores were still dire in 2010, but the worst is still to come (when the 2009 NAEP Science results finally arrive) « Bridge to Tomorrow Says:

December 29, 2010 at 1:16 pm
[...] for the “pretty much last in the nation for science” state, the worst news is yet to come: The 2009 NAEP Science results will finally be released [...]

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Hey, Florida, we’re number 5! « Bridge to Tomorrow Says:

January 11, 2011 at 11:52 am
[...] Except that we’re “pretty much last in the nation in science.” [...]

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