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OK, I'm about to make a homer call here... but a lot of the problems
limiting school visits to science centers are solved by (ahem) outreach
programming. The schools don't want to spend the time/cash/hassle of bussing
everyone to your center? It's cheaper/easier/less time out of the normal
class schedule to have us go to them... 

I'd hesitate to infer too much from a tiny center like SCoC, but for us, the
busy season for outreach starts months before the busy season for school
field trip visits. (Possible key factor: teachers don't want to schedule a
field trip in the CT winter.)

And I do know what our outreach demographics look like - a pretty big
percentage is to towns that definitely do not qualify as "wealthy". The
place we visit most often (by a huge margin) certainly so. This contrasts
starkly with the towns where a majority of our center memberships are sold -
those towns are indeed stankin' rich.

I'm loathe to halt the latest (and very much deserved!) maligning of the No
Child Left Behind Act. But maybe a little jujitsu is possible on this. Maybe
it could be easier to get state money + other grants for our programs
serving schools that do poorly on the test. After all, they need help, we're
here to provide it. 

I genuflect in admiration to the Science Museum of Virginia for their SOL
program and its ability to do just that.

Jonah Cohen
Outreach & Public Programs Manager
Science Center of Connecticut

"On blind faith they place reliance,
what we need more of is science"
           -MC Hawking

-----Original Message-----
From: Beryl Rosenthal [mailto:[log in to unmask]] 
Sent: Friday, December 02, 2005 8:32 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: school program numbers

ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related
institutions.
****************************************************************************
*

>I get a lot of anecdotal comments about this.  Empirical or not, the 
>bottom line is, if the teachers can't come out because that is what 
>they have been told, there is a valuable lesson there.  I have found 
>that some districts, ie the ones that typically do well on the 
>tests, continue to visit. Those that are in trouble, ie the ones 
>that do poorly on the tests, have come less and less.  If you want 
>empirical studies, just look at the list of schools who come and 
>don't come, and note note the districts they represent, (which 
>frankly, has high correlation to economics).  It's pretty damn sad 
>when the districts and kids who could really benefit from 
>inquiry-based experiences can't get it because they are busy being 
>taught how to respond to a test question so their school scores will 
>go up.  That's not learning, that's propaganda.

Now would you like to know how I really feel???

Beryl

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