What’s more dangerous: a nation full of science illiterates or a nation with one less aircraft carrier?
How foolish is it to think that in the age of Facebook, Google’s driverless car, and the Mars Rover that high school graduates can be considered “college ready” without having mastered even the most rudimentary science classes?
A few days ago, the ACT, which tests 1.6 million students annually, reported that a paltry 31 percent of the test takers were “college ready” in science. Even more problematic, the College Board declared last year that only 43 percent of those who took the SAT were college ready—notwithstanding that the SAT doesn’t even test science.
For all the talk about science literacy being critical to our national economic future, the truth is that most entering college freshmen are science illiterates. Indeed, only half of all high school students take these tests, so the numbers are far worse.
