The science portion of the National Assessment of Educational Progress exam given to US students in 2009 included interactive tasks to determine how well students could design, analyze, and amend experiments — results from that test show that US students have difficulties with reasoning and explaining research results, reports ScienceInsider. "What the vast majority of students can do, the data show, is make straightforward analyses," ScienceInsider says, later adding that "fewer than half the students were able to use supporting evidence to write an accurate explanation of the results."
"It's tragic that our students are only grasping the basics and not doing the higher-level analysis and providing written explanations needed to succeed in higher education and compete in a global economy," NAEP chairman David Driscoll said in a statement, according to CNN.