Reaching the Critical Mass in High School Physics
DOI: 10.1063/1.881177
In the past decade a new wave of apprehension about public education—especially science education—has come to the fore. A spate of recent studies has heightened the sense of unease by suggesting a lack of improvement in science proficiency among succeeding cohorts of US students and a slippage in international standings in comparative tests of science knowledge. Such widespread alarm over the academic health of our nation is a relatively new development. Until two generations ago the United States was widely regarded as a pioneer in instituting and extending free and universal public education. Education was extolled as a national resource, and a literate populace was regarded by many as critical to the maintenance of political democracy, to the attainment of a society committed to equal opportunity and the reward of merit, to the pursuit of a robust and internationally competitive economy and to the preservation of a strong national defense.
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References
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More about the authors
Michael Neuschatz, American Institute of Physics, New York.
