Editorial: High school science inadequate

Science majors often complain about their weekly workload, but statistics show their classes… Science majors often complain about their weekly workload, but statistics show their classes aren’t just difficult — they’re dispiriting.

As The New York Times reported last Friday, a whopping 40 percent of science and engineering students switch majors or, worse, don’t earn a degree. If pre-med students are included, that statistic increases to 60 percent — twice the combined attrition rate of all other majors.

The Times’ sources cited a variety of reasons for this phenomenon, including the comparative leniency of humanities and social sciences courses and the so-called “death march” of strenuous, impersonal freshman-year lectures in physics, chemistry and calculus.

These factors no doubt contribute to the high attrition rate. But they hardly explain why the United States is lagging behind countries like Singapore in science test scores. The chemistry curriculum for, say, the National University of Singapore entails the same overload of intensive, wide-ranging introductory classes as most American universities do.

Instead of on tough college courses, we think a large portion of the blame rests on American public high schools.

We all remember what our secondary-level science classes involved: catalyzing basic chemical reactions and constructing Rube Goldberg machines. These activities were fun, but they hardly prepared us for the rigors of General Chemistry or Basic Physical Science. The fundamental skills needed to excel in college — applying advanced mathematics to real-world scenarios, understanding chemical bonds — were simply not emphasized.

Several studies suggest our experiences aren’t anomalous. A 2005 report from the National Research Council of the National Academies concluded that most Americans lack “scientific literacy,” and that neither this nor “an appreciation for how science has shaped the society and culture is being cultivated during the high school years.”

Indeed, science scores in the most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress were abysmal; only 21 percent of 12th-graders performed at or above the proficient level. Although these scores can’t be compared to those of previous tests because they use a new framework, they nonetheless inspired widespread disappointment among educators.

Science instruction is ailing for a variety of reasons — The Washington Post’s Valerie Strauss blames the No Child Left Behind Act — but, whatever the case, U.S. high schools will need to overhaul their curricula if they want to remain competitive.

Again, a deficient scientific background probably isn’t the only reason so many prospective American science and engineering majors grow disheartened — grade inflation in the humanities engenders a dangerous GPA disparity that might not be mirrored in other countries (according to a recent Wake Forest University study, introductory English courses impart the highest grades, and chemistry courses impart the lowest). However, if we want to address the problem of large attrition rates, there’s no better place to start than high schools.