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I’ve gone back and added the Science and Social Studies CRCT results to the elementary school scores in Fulton County Schools. Prior to this year, I have not reviewed that data. School system-wide, about 10% of students are not meeting the CRCT standard in Reading, Math and Language Arts. That is probably about right: If every student were meeting the standard, then I’d argue that the standard is not high enough. (Side note: In fact, while we tend to brag that our students in North Fulton are doing very well, when I speak with parents who move here from other states, too often they comment that the level of learning is noticeably lower here that elsewhere. That is material for a future post here: when scored against other schools in Fulton County or in Georgia, North Fulton does great. How does it compare to other states?) In Science, a full TWENTY-FIVE percent of students are not meeting the grade - and it is the same in third through fifth grades. Social Studies is on par with reading, math and language arts at ten percent. Science is not. Why are so many more students not doing well in Science? I’m not pretending to know the answer. I just know what I see in the data: We are performing significantly worse in Science. This is also probably a national phenomenon, too. As a nation, we aren’t very good at science we are routinely told. This has implications on our lives from the workplace to the garden to the kitchen…science is everywhere. I performed my own somewhat scientific test today after considering these science scores. I downloaded some CRCT practice tests and gave them to my fourth grader and third grader. I wanted to see what they knew, but more importantly I wanted to see what was being asked on the tests. Science is divided into physical, life and earth science. The scary thing about the test is how simple the questions are. Try the tests yourself if you want or test your kids. (Download Life Sciences| Earth Sciences | Physical Sciences) Q: Which part of an animal might form a fossil?

A: Brain B: Bones C: Eyes D: Heart

Q: If you put a metal spoon in hot water, the spoon will

A: Melt B: Dissolve C: Get Cold D: Get Hot

These are just representative questions; some are a tad harder; few could be any easier. We have schools where two-thirds of students don’t meet the basic standard. The best schools are still doing relatively well - and relative is the operative term. The schools that do well in reading and math still do well in science, just not as well: Shakerag, Mountain Park, Cogburn Woods, New Prospect, Summit Hill.

Starting in Middle School, there is an alternative for families who want to emphasize math science in the curriculum. The Fulton Science Academy is a charter school within Fulton County Schools where the Foundational Approaches to Sciences teaching model is used. The school, located in Alpharetta on Hembree Road, is open to anyone living in Fulton County and enrollment to about 400 students is granted based on application and lottery. There are 130 sixth graders on the waiting list who would like to attend. Fulton Science Academy’s has the best CRCT test scores in the sixth grade for both the fewest students not meeting the standard (8.5%) and the most students exceeding the standard (47.9%) Again, I don’t know the answer to the problem and it is not my nature to point out a problem and not be able to offer suggestions and alternatives. Perhaps the best I can do at this point is suggest we get the kids out from in front of the computers and into the back yards, forests and parks. Fortunately our area of Alpharetta and Milton, in particular, offer lifestyles where families can have big yards with woods, streams and even lakes for the kids to explore and wallow in. The best earth science lessons are the muddiest ones.

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