Related articles:

42 schools fail fed assessmentState to soon give pilot versions of science exams on AIMS test High school students deserve more challenges For students, it's time again to jump AIMS hurdle

Other articles by Jeff Commings:

Schools' move depends on a big 'if' Dodge/Flower group joins effort to keep city clean and beautiful New big-name stores yield excitement HS band may be Carnegie-bound Neighbors showcase anti-war signs Doolen, Pueblo students produce anti-meth ads Vets find service no job guarantee Lions of all stripes pull together in assisting area's less fortunate Swan-Skyline buildings get widely different reactions Conservation goes to school

Health Care
Mountain View Retirement Village
LPN Driver/Transportation
Allied Building Products
Driver / Rooftop Loader Health Care
Catalina Pediatrics
RN/LPN Trades/Construction
arizona portland cement
maintenance electrician Trades/Construction
Sonora Enviromental
Electrician Education
Indian Oasis Baboquivari Unified School District
Teachers / Principals Health Care
Saguaro Orthopedics
Front Office

Genetics and organisms soon will go hand-in-hand with fractions and verbs on the state's high-stakes AIMS test.

Officials with the Arizona Department of Education have decided that science will become a part of the state's standardized test in spring 2007, which would follow a national government push to enact more stringent classroom science standards.

Students can rest easily knowing that they don't have to pass the new part of the AIMS test to receive their high-school diplomas — at least for now. But their performance could immediately affect their school's place on the national Adequate Yearly Progress report, which could make or break a school.

The results of standardized tests, such as AIMS, are one of many criteria officials use to determine how well a school is doing under the federal No Child Left Behind Act. If a school fails three years in a row, it's in danger of government intervention.

And starting with the class of 2006, high school seniors have to pass all three AIMS sections — reading, writing and math — in order to receive a diploma. The science test will be given to students in fourth, eighth and 10th grades next spring in a pilot phase, and will be made official in 2008, officials said Thursday.

The move is being made primarily to bring the state into compliance with No Child Left Behind mandates that require students to show competency in science skills in the three grade levels starting in the 2007-08 school year.

In Arizona high schools, that skill mostly will be in biology, because that is the subject most students will know by then, although ninth-graders also will be allowed to take the test if they've completed a state-mandated biology course.

Currently, Arizona students in the three grade levels tested are struggling in the existing AIMS sections. An average of 69 percent of fourth-graders passed at least one section in spring 2005. About 71 percent of eighth-graders passed, and 73 percent of high school sophomores did.

At the same time, nearly 20,000 high school seniors were still failing the test overall.

Some of those involved say students probably won't worry too much about the science test because of the importance of the other sections. That concerns those who have to get students pumped to take the new section.

"Motivating kids to take a test when it doesn't count much to them will be problematic," said Tucson Unified School District high school science specialist Barry Roth, who's also part of the state committee that will design the science test. "We're concerned that a teacher who has a student struggling in reading, writing and math won't pay as much attention to it."

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne said science knowledge already is a necessity for students to do well on AIMS, particularly in the reading section, in which students need to have background information in that field to adequately answer questions.

He said he has been pushing for schools to focus on a curriculum that reaches beyond the three current sections of the AIMS test, such as science, the arts and social studies.

Though the test is focused on biology, Pueblo High Magnet School senior Darryl Davis-Rosas said students take all kinds of science classes — physical, Earth, chemistry and physics — and he wondered why those weren't being tested.

"If it's not being counted for graduation, it kind of seems a little pointless," said Davis-Rosas, 17. "I don't know why they need to keep testing us and testing us if it's not even going to count."

Roth said questions for the test haven't been designed yet, but they won't be multiple-choice questions quizzing students' knowledge of different species or how cells reproduce.

"Science is a way of thinking," he said. "People write test items that don't test science. They test science facts, what we call factoids. How do you test a way of thinking?"

Despite the headaches with designing the test and creating statewide motivation, those who work closely in science see a good future for the new AIMS section, Roth said.

"The fact that science is going to be tested puts it on the map," he said. "Hopefully, it will have more teachers teaching science."

On StarNet: Search for AIMS test scores by school at azstarnet.com/education