Incomplete data on enrollment in federally funded high school science programs, recently released in a report by the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, prompted a Harvard professor to call for a public retraction of the report yesterday.
The report examined enrollment in academic courses in secondary schools in 1971-72 to determine student reaction to the courses, but the researchers underestimated enrollment in the science programs, Fletcher G. Watson, Shattuck Professor of Education, said yesterday.
This error made the programs appear less effective and endangered their future, Watson added.
Watson attributed the inaccuracy of the report to inadequate survey techniques.
Three Million Missing
The omission of approximately three million students attending schools with grades one through 12 caused the data on enrollment in science programs to be deceptively lower, Watson said.
Logan C. Osterndorf, a representative of the National Center for Education Statistics, which is part of HEW, admitted that the figures in the report were low in comparison to Watson's findings.
He said the reason the survey excluded any reference to schools with grades below the secondary level is that this survey was conducted to compare results with a similar 1960-61 report.
The older survey only considered secondary schools and "the addition of any new elements would decrease comparability" with the past study, Osterndorf said.
Apples and Oranges
Watson also demonstrated the discrepancy in enrollment figures in the HEW report by citing the annual sales of his Project Physics texts, which were twice as high as the enrollment reported by the Education Statistics Center.
Osterndorf emphasized the narrow focus of the study on academic selection and student enrollment. He said textbook sales were not considered a factor in the survey.
"It is very difficult to make sense out of conflicting sets of data and this is a case of comparing apples to oranges" he said.
Watson expressed his concern about the immediate impact of the low enrollment figures on the future of federally funded science programs.
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