Heavy Books Light on Learning: Not One Middle Grades Science Text Rated Satisfactory
By AAAS's Project 2061
Washington, DC—Not one of the widely used science textbooks for middle
school was rated satisfactory by Project 2061, the long-term science, mathematics,
and technology education reform initiative of the American Association for
the Advancement of Science (AAAS). And the new crop of texts that have just
entered the market fared no better in the evaluation.
The in-depth study found that most textbooks cover too many topics and don't
develop any of them well. All texts include many classroom activities that
either are irrelevant to learning key science ideas or don't help students
relate what they are doing to the underlying ideas.
"Our students are lugging home heavy texts full of disconnected facts
that neither educate nor motivate them," said Dr. George Nelson, Director
of Project 2061. "It's a credit to science teachers that their students
are learning anything at all. No matter how `scientifically accurate' a text
may be," Nelson continued, "if it doesn't provide teachers and students
with the right kinds of help in understanding and applying important concepts,
then it's not doing its job."
Nelson released the textbook evaluation on September 28 at the National Press
Club, which featured him as its "Morning Newsmaker."
The study, headed by Dr. Jo Ellen Roseman, Project 2061 Curriculum Director,
examined how well textbooks for the middle grades can help students learn
key ideas in earth science, life science, and physical science, drawn from
AAAS's Benchmarks for Science Literacy and the National Research Council's
National Science Education Standards.
"This study probed beyond the usual superficial alignment by topic heading,"
Roseman said. "Instead, it examined the text's quality of instruction
aimed specifically at the key ideas, using criteria drawn from the best available
research about how students learn."
Each text was evaluated by two independent teams made up of middle school teachers,
curriculum specialists, and professors of science education. The evaluation
procedure was developed and tested over a period of three years in collaboration
with more than 100 scientists, mathematicians, educators and curriculum developers,
with funding from the National Science Foundation.
"This study confirms our worst fears about the materials used to educate
our children in the critical middle grades," said Nelson. "Because
textbooks are the backbone of classroom instruction, we must demand improvement
so that our students can acquire the knowledge and skills they will need for
more advanced learning in high school, college, and the workplace."
The study also looked at three stand-alone units that are not part of any textbooks.
Developed at Michigan State University and the Michigan Department of Education
through research aimed at how students learn, the units rated much higher
than the textbooks. "These encouraging results show that good science
materials can indeed be developed," Roseman reported.
"Although Project 2061 does not write textbooks," Nelson explained,
"our goal is to provide guidance for those who do. For example, we plan
to send detailed reports to the publishers of science textbooks and invite
them to discuss the findings with us. Project 2061 hopes the reviews not only
will guide textbook development in the future but will also be valuable for
middle school teachers today. We understand that these negative evaluations
will be disturbing for schools using these texts, but teachers should be able
to use the explanations in the full reports to start looking for ways to compensate
for the text's shortcomings."
This is the second in a series of Project 2061 textbook evaluations funded
by the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The evaluation of middle grades mathematics
texts, released in January 1999, rated several texts high, but these texts
are not yet widely used. As a result of Project 2061's evaluation, a number
of school districts are now considering these highly rated math texts for
adoption. Project 2061 will release its findings for high school algebra and
biology textbooks next year and is seeking funds to examine elementary school
materials and to update the middle and high school materials evaluations.
Project 2061 has been working since 1985 to improve science, mathematics, and
technology education for all students. Its 1993 publication Benchmarks
for Science Literacy recommended specific learning goals for students
at the end of grades 2, 5, 8, and 12 and provided the foundation for national
and state science standards and frameworks. The project offers a variety of
professional development programs for teachers and other educators.
###
Read Middle
Grades Science Textbooks: A Benchmarks-Based Evaluation, which includes
detailed reports on each of the textbooks evaluated.
Contact Information:
Mary Koppal
(202) 326-6643
Related Items:
Background on Project 2061's
curriculum-materials evaluation procedure
(Article)
Jo Ellen Roseman talks
about the textbooks evaluation on NPR's All
Things Considered.
(Audio)
