Report: States Failing to Prepare Students for Careers in Biosciences

States across the nation are failing to adequately prepare middle and high school students for eventual careers in biosciences, a new report concludes.

The findings, included in a 64-page document titled “Taking the pulse of bioscience education in America:A State-by-State Analysis,” provide a comprehensive look at middle and high school bioscience education in the 50 states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia. Released at the Biotechnology Industry Organization’s (BIO) annual conference in Atlanta, the report found a wide disparity across measures of student achievement in overall science and biosciences. It also discovered that biosciences are not incorporated into state science standards equally across the nation.

“The biosciences are the great adventure of our time, and states that aspire to play a part, either as supporters or leaders, must nurture their life science education programs,” said Paul A. Hanle, president of the Biotechnology Institute, a biotechnology education organization based in Arlington, Va. “This report rates the states performance in life science education according to certain indicators of achievement. It also identifies best practices and programs throughout the nation. Both will be vital tools to help states wanting to strengthen their life science education efforts.”

Among the key findings in the report:

• Only 52 percent of 12th graders are at or above a basic level of achievement in the sciences, and for eighth graders 57 percent are at a basic level of achievement.

• In states with the highest scores, fewer than half of the eighth graders are “proficient” in science. The percentage of eighth graders in each state that were determined to be “proficient” in science on the NAEPtest ranged from a high of 43 percent to a low of 14 percent in 2005.

• On average, 28 percent of high school students taking the ACT, a national standardized test for college admission, reached a score indicating college readiness for biology. There was no state where half of the high school students were considered academically ready for college-level biology.

• Student performance was best in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Ohio, Vermont and Wisconsin.

• Student performance was lagging in Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas and West Virginia.