NAEP itself

Just had a chance to look through the 2005 NAEP results. They're laid out really nicely on the site (see link). You can really drill down into the data and see what's going on.

Washington State's NAEP Results: Me Too!

I wonder what's going on with NAEP and these LASER states! Check the link to see Washington State's strong showing on NAEP.

SC leads NAEP Gains

I was very interested to see my friends in South Carolina leading the nation in improvements on NAEP (see link). The most interesting thing to me was the SC is a LASER state. Most students in the state have access to learning via hands-on inquiry using NSF-developed curricula. To me, this may be the first national data showing how inquiry really does work.

Inquiry for College Prep

Thanks to my buddy Ron Dodson of Hoover City Schools for pointing out how the ACT has shifted so that it focuses squarely on inquiry. For those of you who teach in states where colleges accept the ACT (as the do throughout the South where I am) teaching by inquiry will help boost ACT scores. This means that inquiry will help some kids will get into college who wouldn't have via traditional science instruction. Inquiry will also help some students get into better colleges and earn scholarship money.

Check out the ACT science standards at the following site: http://www.act.org/standard/planact/science/index.html (or use the link below).