FCAT Science

The num­ber of Florida stu­dents tak­ing Advanced Place­ment tests hit a record high in 2009, how­ever the num­ber of stu­dents who fail the exams is ris­ing, par­tic­u­larly in the South. No longer are AP classes for an elite group of stu­dents, there has been a major push in the state of Florida to get more stu­dents enrolled in Advanced Place­ment classes. The new Florida high school grade sys­tem will take into account par­tic­i­pa­tion and per­for­mance on the AP exams, adding another incen­tive for schools to encour­age par­tic­i­pa­tion in AP classes. Florida was fifth in the list of states with the great­est per­cent­age of high school seniors doing well on AP exams. In 2009 21.3 per­cent of Florida stu­dents did well on the AP exams, up from 16.3 per­cent in 2004. How­ever, data shows that Florida stu­dents did not do well when com­pared to their national coun­ter­parts on some AP exams, specif­i­cally those in math and sci­ence. On the AP Biol­ogy exam only 32 per­cent of Florida stu­dents did well, earn­ing at least a 3 on the five-level test, com­pared to about 49 per­cent nation­ally. Kris­ten Klopfen­stein, a senior researcher at the Texas Schools Project and a pro­fes­sor on leave from Texas Chris­t­ian Uni­ver­sity, who con­ducts research on AP has found that stu­dents who take AP often do well in col­lege. How­ever, Klopfenstein’s research shows that it’s other rig­or­ous courses, espe­cially in math and sci­ence that lead to that suc­cess. To see view­points of par­ents and admin­is­tra­tors in regards to the push to take AP courses see the fol­low­ing arti­cle by Leslie Postal in Orlando Sen­tinel on Feb­ru­ary 10, 2010.

 Novem­ber 23rd, Pres­i­dent Obama launched the “Edu­cate to Inno­vate” cam­paign. The goal of the nation­wide effort is to move Amer­i­can stu­dents from the mid­dle to the top in sci­ence and math achieve­ment over the next decade, over $260 mil­lion in public-private invest­ments have been made to help achieve this goal. Big name pub­lic and pri­vate part­ner­ships have come on board to help achieve this goal includ­ing: Time Warner Cable, Dis­cov­ery Com­mu­ni­ca­tions, Sesame Street’s Early STEM Lit­er­acy Ini­tia­tive, The MacArthur Foun­da­tion, Sony Com­puter Enter­tain­ment Amer­ica, and numer­ous other cor­po­ra­tions. States have begun sub­mit­ting qual­i­fy­ing paper­work to state their inter­est in apply­ing for  “Race to the Top” funds. States receiv­ing Race to the Top funds will have to dra­mat­i­cally improve their schools and stu­dent achieve­ment in sci­ence and math. A major por­tion of the funds are expected to be used for pro­fes­sional staff devel­op­ment. For fur­ther details on the “Edu­cate to Inno­vate” cam­paign see the offi­cial White House Press release below.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/president-obama-launches-educate-innovate-campaign-excellence-science-technology-en