Haslam visit touts state’s improved science scores
Astronaut tells students how subject led to NASA
People sometimes ask NASA Captain Barry Wilmore when he started training to become an astronaut.
“About third grade,” he told the crowd of students and state and local leaders at White Station Middle School on Thursday. Third grade is when he started learning fractions and the most basic functions of technology — all skills he learned in Tennessee schools and used in space.
Wilmore’s speech was part of a caravan with Gov. Bill Haslam and Education Commissioner Candice McQueen to visit Memphis, Nashville and Knoxville to share positive news about the state’s growth on a national science test.
The results of the 2015 National Assessment of Educational Progress science test, given to fourth- and eighthgraders, were released late Wednesday and showed Tennessee made significant strides over the past six years. The state’s eighth-graders improved more on the test than in any other state, with 37 percent of students testing at proficient or advanced. Fourth-graders in Tennessee were tied for second for the title of fastest-growing, with 41 percent of students proficient or above. The national averages for fourth- and eighthgraders was 37 percent and 33 percent, respectively.
The numbers put Tennessee in the top half of states in the country for both grades. Haslam told students that’s important for their future careers, as he tries to recruit companies to bring jobs to the state.
“What they want to know is, ‘Will I have the right workforce?’ “Haslam said. “And with the emphasis today on the STEM fields ... it is more important than ever that we show we can compete with anyone. And this is historic growth.”
Haslam said the NAEP test, which tests students every other year in English and math, is useful information because it’s the only one given to the same groups of students in all 50 states.
“It literally is an apples-versus-apples comparison,” he said, adding that it’s a way to measure progress as statelevel tests have changed. State education leaders have warned that 2015-16
state test scores dropped due to a more rigorous test. Some students also were not tested due to software failures.
Haslam credited the growth to a combination of higher standards, state tests more aligned to those standards and the development of more meaningful teacher evaluations.
Shelby County Schools Superintendent Dorsey Hopson also added the importance of the focus the district has put on hiring and developing effective school leaders and teachers.
“We’ve done a lot of work over the last few years regarding evaluations and making sure that we have the information to support our teachers and help them when they need help,” Hopson said.
NAEP does not break down the testing data by school district, but Hopson noted to members of the media after the event that as the largest district in the state, SCS likely played a large role in the statewide growth numbers. “I hope that the headline says, ‘big deal,’” he said. Haslam also noted the data shows a narrowing of the achievement gap between minority and white students, and there’s no longer a gap between male and female students in science.
That was music to seventh-grader Jennifer Chiu’s ears. The biology-lover had the honor of introducing Haslam to the crowd while dressed in a white lab coat. Jennifer said the speeches made her feel proud of her peers and inspired her to keep studying.
“It gives more meaning to the homework,” she said.