Deans at the nation's colleges and universities who are responsible for training the newest generation of elementary schoolteachers say science should be the fourth "R," and placed on equal footing with reading, writing and math in elementary school.

Yet, 10 years after the National Research Council's National Science Education Standards called for similar change as part of its recommendations for U.S. science education reform, a new survey concludes elementary school science still remains a second-tier subject, both in teacher training and in today's classrooms.

Regardless of the deans' recognition of the importance of kindergarten through fifth grade (K-5) science education, many lack confidence that today's young students are getting a good science education and are less confident about their own graduating teachers' qualifications to teach K-5 science than reading, writing and social studies. And, substantially fewer new teachers feel "very qualified" to teach science compared to the other core subjects.

Those are among the central findings of a survey commissioned by Bayer Corporation as part of its Making Science Making Science (MSMS) program. The Bayer Facts of Science Education X: Are the Nation's Colleges and Universities Adequately Preparing Elementary Schoolteachers of Tomorrow to Teach Science? Polls both college/university deans of education and the newest generation of America's K-5 schoolteachers (those with three to five years of experience) to provide a progress report on K-5 science education. It reveals a glass half-empty/half-full picture, and a consistent message that says science in our schools is considered less important than reading, writing and math - a message that is seen in college/university elementary education programmes and subsequently carried over to teaching in classrooms across the country.

"People often ask me, 'If we can send a man to the moon, why can't our students achieve in science,?" said Dr. Mae C. Jemison, the nation's first African-American female astronaut and national MSMS spokesperson. "My response just as often is 'Because we haven't made it a priority.' And that is certainly something we're seeing here. But this survey provokes another question, 'How can we expect our students to achieve in science when the message to their teachers is that science is less important for them, too?'"

In a series of questions to both deans and new teachers about their pre-service (i.e., college/university) training programmes, the pattern of science as second-tier subject emerges.

For example, many more new teachers give an "A" grade to their English and math teaching preparation (39 per cent and 28 per cent, respectively) than they do to their science teaching preparation (18 per cent). And, the four in 10 (42 per cent) who give it a C, D or F is substantially larger than those teachers similarly dissatisfied with pre-service training in English and math (28 per cent and 23 per cent, respectively).

While deans tend to be more positive, they are still least likely to rate their science teaching prep "excellent" as compared to English, math and social studies. Specifically, 40 per cent give their science training programmes an A, compared to 76 per cent for English, 56 per cent for math and 44 per cent for social studies.

America's new teachers say science received less emphasis than English and math in their general teaching methods courses. When asked to rate subjects in order of time spent, 86 per cent of teachers rated English first, 66 per cent math second, 53 per cent science third and 56 per cent social studies fourth.

Moreover, nearly three-quarters (72 per cent) of deans say, overall, English receives the most emphasis, while science and social studies vie for least emphasis (26 per cent and 45 per cent, respectively).

Science is cited by the most teachers (63 per cent) as the subject they wish had been given more emphasis during their pre-service training as compared to English (48 per cent), math (49 per cent) and social studies (60 per cent).

Despite the present limited requirements for elementary education majors in science and in science teaching methods, both deans and new teachers say more is needed. A large majority of both deans (84 per cent) and teachers (72 per cent) agree that "elementary teacher education programmes should require their undergraduates to take more coursework both in science itself and in science teaching methods."

In fact, one in three new teachers (35 per cent) say they rely more on what they learned in their high school science courses than on what they learned in college to teach science today.