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Social justice education is undertheorized in science education. Given the wide range of goals and purposes proposed within both social justice education and social justice science education scholarship, these fields require reconciliation. In this paper, I suggest a student empowerment framework for conceptualizing teaching and learning social justice science education in classroom settings. I utilize this framework to analyze the case study of a high school environmental science classroom in the United States where the teacher and students created environmental action projects that were relevant to their community. I examine how social, political, and academic empowerment were or were not enacted within the classroom and argue for educators to give heed to all three simultaneously to mediate student empowerment while working toward social justice science education. (Contains 1 table and 8 footnotes.)

ABSTRACT Recent comparative data on high school graduates show that many American students are not well prepared in fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics and that there is a persistent achievement gap according to the socioeconomic backgrounds of students. The research for this paper focuses on the role of elementary education in science as an important preparatory step. National trend data show a decline in instructional time in the elementary grades on science instruction over the past two decades. State-level data show wide variation in the amount of class time spent on science education and a positive relationship between the amount of class time and student achievement scores in science as measured by the National Assessment of Educational Progress Grade 4 assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the effect of using analogies on chemistry achievement in the U.S. This paper also determines whether the use of verbal analogies would have an effect on changing students' Piagetian levels during the school year. The results indicate that using mental analogies does not result in greater achievement for all types of students and appears to confirm the research reports of the three science teachers. The author implies that results might have been more positive in this study if students were required to extend the analogies themselves to the chemical situations rather than telling them how they applied.

The article cites a study which develops a general model of mastery learning to meet the educational challenge of individual student differences in secondary science instruction in the U.S. The learning model confronts the interrelated problems of effective student evaluation and individual differences in student aptitude, prerequisite knowledge and other factors that may influence the rate of learning. The objective of this mastery approach was to achieve constant performances level for all students by allowing the time spent in the learning process to vary.

The article focuses on the results of a test on a scientific thinking in the U.S. It is noted that the average total scores for the successive grades increase with considerable regularity from the eighth to the twelfth. The widely different scores made by the pupils of the same grade level on the several exercises of the test and the very different rate of improvements in their skill in the use of several elements and safeguards as progress are made from the lower grades to the upper. It appears that the ability to think scientifically is a complex of a number of component abilities and that it develops at varying rates and different communities. The test has been printed merely to facilitate gathering the data needed as a basis for its revision, improvement or replacement.

The author comments on the Annual Science Talent Search which aims to discover young scientists in their pre-college years. The author observes that students who have applied for and taken the examination believed that they have a good opportunity in winning the competition if they have high grades, good personality, the ability to express themselves and special interest in book science. He points out that three students from the Forest Hills High School in New York City could not win in the competition for they cannot express themselves well in English.

ABSTRACT In the United States, student achievement results from mathematics and reading are always included in high-stakes accountability calculations. Because of this, it has been argued that other subjects have been minimized due to assessment and accountability policies. In this study, the accountability practices of states were differentiated into three groups based on the degree to which science achievement contributed to accountability formulas. Data from National Assessment of Educational Progress Teacher Questionnaires were evaluated to assess the amount of time fourth-grade teachers devoted to mathematics and reading in 2003 and 2011, as well as to science in 2005 and 2009. Teachers from the three groups of states reported spending equivalent amounts of time on mathematics and reading. However, the frequency of teachers reporting spending at least 4 hours of weekly instructional time on science was significantly higher in states that integrated fourth-grade science achievement into accountability formulas versus states where science did not figure in high-stakes accountability. Implications of this significant difference are discussed and are related to states' applications to receive waivers from No Child Left Behind and to alignment with the goals of the Next Generation Science Standards. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Sci Ed 97:621-636, 2013 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As part of a 5-year professional development intervention aimed at improving science and literacy achievement of English language learning (ELL) students in urban elementary schools, this study examined fourth-grade students' science achievement across a 3-year (2005-2008) implementation of our professional development intervention consisting of curriculum units and teacher workshops. Analyses were conducted with 1,758 students at six schools that participated in the intervention. The results of this study reveal several central findings. First, students in the treatment group displayed a statistically significant increase in science achievement from pre- to posttest. Second, there was no statistically significant difference in achievement gains between students at English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) Levels 1-4 and students who had exited from ESOL or never been in ESOL. Third, there was no significant difference in achievement gains based on the year of participation in the intervention. Finally, students in the treatment group scored substantially lower on National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) items than the norm group at the pretest, but higher than the norm group at posttest. These results indicate that ELL students' improved achievement on the science test was a result of effective inquiry-based science instruction as promoted in the professional development intervention. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Sci Ed 95:771-793, 2011 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study relates the performance of college students in introductory science courses to the amount of content covered in their high school science courses. The sample includes 8310 students in introductory biology, chemistry, or physics courses in 55 randomly chosen U.S. colleges and universities. Students who reported covering at least 1 major topic in depth, for a month or longer, in high school were found to earn higher grades in college science than did students who reported no coverage in depth. Students reporting breadth in their high school course, covering all major topics, did not appear to have any advantage in chemistry or physics and a significant disadvantage in biology. Care was taken to account for significant covariates: socioeconomic variables, English and mathematics proficiency, and rigor of their preparatory high science course. Alternative operationalizations of depth and breadth variables result in very similar findings. We conclude that teachers should use their judgment to reduce coverage in high school science courses and aim for mastery by extending at least 1 topic in depth over an extended period of time. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Sci Ed93:798–826, 2009 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the positive correlation between vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension as well as between vocabulary knowledge and school success for third and fifth grade students in the U.S. The vocabulary demands placed upon children as they study science. Thus, requiring a depth of understanding of the vocabulary of the discipline which transcends the recognition of a word and the contextual setting in which it is used. An explanation for why children have difficulty in fully comprehending science vocabulary is offered in developmental psychology.

The article summarizes the national trends in science achievement and their comparison to other countries. According to the author, national and international data on achievement in science are not encouraging. It was found that students in the U.S. scored below their counterparts in other nations in all areas of science. However, there are two encouraging findings of the research, according to the author. First, the gap between minorities and white students has lessened. Second, gender differences have decreased in the U.S.

The article presents a study which analyzes the curricula for secondary science education in the U.S. There has been an urgency regarding the need to reexamine the practices and outcomes of science education in the country. Several national studies have been undertaken to determine the current status of instruction in the schools and the nature of curricula offered at the precollege level. June Kasuga Miller's study examined the national characteristics of science curricula within the context of an international cooperative study of science curricula and achievement conducted between 1981 and 1988 by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA). Known by the acronym SSIS, the Second IEA Science Study compared the precollege science achievement of students in 25 countries.

The article discusses the study on the responses of students to questions concerning attitudes toward science in the U.S. Data used in this discussion was taken from the 1976-1977 survey of science conducted by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Items on similar topics were utilized in the study to minimize the problems. NAEP uses several procedures to guard against nonresponse bias. The examination of the attitudinal responses of black students indicates positive immediate attitudes. The result suggests that classroom practices which improve practices need to be used in ways to improve learning. On the other hand, the positive attitudes of minority students are no accompanied by higher achievement levels in science.

The article cites a study from the U.S. about the application of strategy analysis to train teachers in the use of selected teaching strategies and illustrates ways teachers can be trained using two analysis systems. The implementation of teacher training methods are influenced by the relation between particular teacher behaviors and student achievement. This study recommends that science teacher education programs need to provide opportunities that would allow them to acquire effective teaching strategies. Conclusions from a review of literature related to the use of strategy analysis in training teachers are offered.

The article evaluates the techniques in assessing students' skill with the processes of science in the U.S. The immediate evaluation of student achievement is designed to help the teacher evaluate overall class performance in a general sense. The Science Process Instrument is used in the long-range evaluation of achievement. The Eastern Regional Institute for Education Science Process Test was designed to assess the skills associated with the Science-A Process Approach curriculum for students in fourth and fifth grades. The Science Process Skills Test consists of 18 items assessing inference and verification was formed from the items that satisfied criteria related to the judges and the student sample.

The article describes a study on indirect/inductive teaching strategies in relation to student achievement in the U.S. The author asserts that students in the indirect classes achieved more than students in the direct classes. Also, the students in classes with higher achievement tended to have better attitudes toward the class. He reports that students learned more science in an indirect situation. The author states that the results can be summarized that significant differences in achievement and attitude seem to be in favor of indirect strategy and only a few studies indicate significant differences in either direction.

The article discusses the report on students who achieve in science, which was presented at the meeting of Section Q of the American Association for the Advancement of Science held December 29, 1961 in Denver, Colorado. It explores the problem of the origin of scientific talent. The authors speculate that certain kinds of experience in one's early life, school and peer association might be of primary importance. The article examines the biographical life history information of 600 senior high school students.

The article discusses the report on achievement in high school chemistry, which was presented at the meeting of Section Q of the American Association for the Advancement of Science held December 30, 1961 in Denver, Colorado. It reports on the use of factorial design and covariance in the study of several factors and their relationship to achievement in high school chemistry. The article details the results of the Anderson Chemistry Test, the ACS-NSTA Cooperative Examination: High School Chemistry Form 1959, and the School and College Ability Tests.

The article reports on the study on the high school backgrounds of some doctors of philosophy degree (Ph.D.) in the U.S. Some of the persons who were intelligent enough to earn a Ph.D. degree had, on their high school records, intelligence quotient's of 100 or lower. The 648 American Ph.D.'s were also studied by comparing the 465 natural scientists with the 183 social scientists and humanists.

The purpose of the article is twofold: 1) to compare the competencies of different groups of college students in certain aspects of the biological and physical sciences in the U.S.; and, 2) to compare the competencies of males with those of females in these areas. It is found out that there is little difference between the males and females who participated in the study in so far as biological knowledge is concerned. Males seem to perform significantly better than the girls on the chemistry test. And the groups were extremely diverse with respect to their achievements.

The article examines the causes of student failures in medical schools in the U.S. In 1951, the Medical College of Virginia attempted to find the answers to some of the problems with student failures. Accordingly, the same effort was made through a survey of fifty-eight articles appearing in the Journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges from 1927-1948. Finally, opinion returns from graduate students at the University of Missouri in the summer of 1948, showed students' attitudes concerning failures of professional and graduate students. In the two surveys, the student cannot always be blamed for failure. Instructors may be at fault in the process of instruction itself or in inadequate means of judging what is real failure, or real success.

The article presents the results of a comparison study to the doctoral dissertation "The Relative Achievements of the Objectives of Secondary Science in A Representative Sampling of Fifty-Six Minnesota Schools." It studies the teaching situation that make for a better realization of the objectives of chemistry instruction and compares the results of the study with the earlier one. The schools taken for this study were larger than the earlier study. The teachers too had more experience in teaching chemistry. However, they handled about the same number of pupils per day. The important factors studied were the preparations done by the teacher per day, the size of the school, the selection of chemistry as a subject by the pupils, and the number of laboratory hours received by the students per year. Three of the factors in this study proved to have different effects, on student achievement in this study than the earlier study.

The article presents information on a study to determine the educability of adolescents in inductive ability in the United States. The study team selected 240 general biology pupils for the sample. The students were given different methods of mental ability test at various levels. The aim of the study was to analyze the mental process of induction that is associated with the mental activities. The application of scientific methods in mental activities is predicated upon successful growth of pupils in understanding and use of the methods. The experimental classes were given preliminary testing and then they were assigned to a brief statement on the scientific methods. The special consideration was of the subordinate concepts involved in the formulation of the hypothesis.

The article discusses the report on science careers, which was presented at the meeting of Section Q of the American Association for the Advancement of Science held December 29, 1961 in Denver, Colorado. It reports on the large number of important human aptitudes required in the many diverse fields of science. The article highlights the results of a comprehensive battery of aptitude and achievement tests taken by a five percent representative sample of all high school students in the United States in the late spring of 1960.