New York City public school students will have trouble meeting higher standards for graduation because 30 percent of the City’s science teachers and 16 percent of math teachers are unqualified, according to Math and Science Programs: Making Them Count, a report released today by City Comptroller Alan G. Hevesi. The report outlines several barriers to the successful implementation of the Board of Education’s 1994 initiative to improve City students’ math and science skills. Findings include a serious shortage of qualified math, science and technology teachers; substantial laboratory equipment deficiencies; and a lack of proper preparation for math and science in elementary and middle schools.

"Our children must have a solid education in math and science so they can compete and obtain jobs in the 21^st century. The school system's tough new standards for math and science are a step in the right direction. But we are setting up our kids to fail if we don't give them the tools they need to learn and meet those standards, including qualified teachers and working laboratories," Hevesi said.

A survey of 19 high schools throughout the City in the spring of 1997 found serious problems in the science laboratories in every one. Students must have hands-on laboratory experience in order to pass Regents-level science classes. Examples of problem areas include the following:

Labs suffer from substantial equipment deficiencies. At 10 of the 19, gas jets were not working, 11 of 19 had serious water problems, 13 of the 19 did not have enough power packs for electrical experiments, 14 of 19 had broken microscopes and 15 of 19 had ventilation problems.

There are not enough labs. Theodore Roosevelt has two labs with 36 science classes for each. Roosevelt and Murry Bergtraum High Schools have only half the labs they need, assuming single-period labs and 960 students per lab. A better standard would be 360 students per lab to give students double periods and time to do effective experiments. South Bronx High has no real labs, but uses classrooms without proper equipment.

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Students do not get the double periods they need to do real experiments. At 16 of the 19 schools, students have mostly single-period labs. At only three schools are double lab periods the norm.

Science class budgets have declined as number of classes increased. On average, the number of science classes at the surveyed schools increased 191 percent between the 1993-94 and 1996-97 school years, while the average science budget increased only 9.7 percent.

A review of the same 19 high schools' labs last week found that five had been renovated and three were under construction, but at least two of the five completed had complaints about the work. At the other 12, conditions were the same as before.

"The result of inadequate time, limited supplies, and non-working school science laboratories is that students do experiments that fit the limited resources, not experiments that teach what they need to know. That is not the way to implement higher standards," said Hevesi.

The report reviews the steps taken by former Chancellor Ramon Cortines and continued by Chancellor Rudy Crew to set higher standards for City students in math and science. The program, known as the 1994 Citywide Math and Science Initiative, requires all entering high school students to take three years of Regents-level math and laboratory science. The problems outlined in the report are especially significant in light of the higher standards required by the Board of Regents since 1996. This year’s high school juniors will be required to pass the English Regents in order to graduate. Freshmen entering high school in fall 1999 will be the first class required to pass five Regents exams – Math, Global Studies, Science, English and U.S. History – in order to graduate. Eighty percent of the students who took part in a recent statewide experimental version of the new math Regents exam failed. This included 38 percent of honors students.

The Comptroller’s investigators conducted field studies and reviewed relevant test scores, budget and educational data produced by the New York City Board of Education and the New York State Department of Education. In addition, the investigators surveyed science laboratories in 19 City high schools: A. Philip Randolph, George Washington, Louis D. Brandeis, and Murry Bergtraum (Manhattan); Harry S. Truman, Herbert Lehman, Theodore Roosevelt, and South Bronx (Bronx); Thomas Jefferson , Midwood, Samuel J. Tilden, and South Shore, (Brooklyn); Bayside, Jamaica, Newtown, and Springfield Gardens (Queens); and Curtis, Susan E. Wagner and Tottenville (Staten Island).

The report found that City students enter the ninth grade without basic

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math and science skills, making higher level work extremely difficult. For example, according to the State, only 18 percent of ninth graders passed the Regents biology exam in SY 97. This situation is primarily caused by inconsistent curricula in the City’s primary schools and high student transfer rates that interrupt individual learning. In addition, elementary teachers are required to undergo very little math and science training.

Another serious problem is the Board’s growing inability to attract and retain enough math and science teachers. Unqualified teachers are often used to fill empty positions. During the 1996-97 school year, 15.9 percent of City math teachers held temporary teaching licenses, compared to just 5.9 percent in the rest of New York State. The science teacher shortage is severe, with the proportion of uncertified teachers increasing from 16.5 percent in the 1992-93 school year to 30.4 percent during the 1996-97 school year. Statewide, excluding New York City, the proportion of uncertified science teachers dropped from 14.8 percent in 1992-93 to 12.3 percent during the 1996-97 school year.

In addition, poor staff development has also greatly impeded math and science education. During fiscal year 1995-96, the Board spent only $32 per teacher for math and science professional development for approximately 41,200 elementary and high school math and science teachers through its multi-disciplinary resource centers. It is unrealistic to expect that teachers will rise to a higher level of performance without training and support.

While the Board of Education has the funds to renovate some of the school labs, money has not been allocated to renovate all the existing labs or to build additional labs that are needed to meet the current number of students.

In response to report findings, the Comptroller's Office made numerous recommendations, including:

1. Create a Citywide strategic plan for reforming math, science and technology education that goes beyond the Board’s current New York City Urban Systemic Initiative effort. It must involve parents, businesses and our science-rich community.
2. Continue to improve the hiring and retention of new, qualified math and science teachers and laboratory specialists, including alternative recruitment efforts, such as the Board’s recent recruitment of Austrian teachers.

3. Support the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) certification of CUNY colleges. Only four teacher education

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programs in New York State are accredited using these more rigorous standards, none at CUNY.

4. Offer sign-on bonuses, scholarships, loan forgiveness programs and increased salaries for hard-to-find math and science teachers.
5. Provide on-going, in-depth mentoring and professional development. Teachers should be required to join their respective professional associations and encouraged to participate in conferences and other professional development programs. The City should be prepared to pay for this. Create a consolidated math, science and technology center in each borough.
6. Improve the laboratory experience of high school students so that it is consistent with Regents and State graduation standards.
7. Double the staffing of laboratory specialists to restore levels to those just prior to the fiscal crisis of 1975. Some of these new specialists should be assigned to middle schools.
8. Add approximately 70 new laboratories, increase the science budget per school for equipment and supplies, and bring all science laboratories up to working order by correcting major equipment deficiencies.
9. Implement double period laboratory classes.
10. Work toward meeting the standards recommended in the Board’s technology plan to have six students per computer in high schools and eight students per computer in elementary and middle schools.
11. Expand the current high school peer counseling network to incorporate elementary and middle schools, and add the function of improving students’ attitude toward math and science through positive peer influence.

"Some of these changes will be expensive. That may mean they cannot all be done at once and sources of funds will have to be found. But the Board of Education has been running a surplus for the last three years and per-pupil spending in high schools is relatively low," Hevesi noted.

The Comptroller’s Office provided a draft copy of the report to the Board and met with representatives from the Division of High Schools, Schools Facilities, Instructional Support, Assessment and Accountability and the Office of Parent Advocacy. The Board agreed with most of the reports’ findings and has already taken action to implement some of the report’s recommendations in the 1998-99 school year.

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