And, unfortunately, those disparities often deepen into significant achievement gaps by the end of eighth grade if they are not addressed during elementary school.
Those are some of the findings in a new report by researchers from Pennsylvania State University and the University of California, Irvine. The report was published this week in an American Educational Research Association journal and provides a rare glimpse into the science knowledge of this country’s youngest students.
The researchers’ findings suggest that, in order for the United States to maintain long-term scientific and economic competitiveness in the world, policymakers need to renew efforts to ensure access to high-quality, early learning experiences in child care settings, pre-schools and elementary schools.
Put another way, waiting to address science achievement gaps in middle or high school may be too late.
“Unfortunately, as the United States experiences greater income inequality, science achievement gaps may be experienced by progressively larger percentages of children,” the report’s authors wrote. “(Those) with low levels of science achievement may be less able as adults to understand public policy issues necessitating ever-greater scientific literacy and reasoning as well as experience lower employment and prosperity.”
The researchers’ study tracked 7,757 children from their start in kindergarten to the end of eighth grade.
