Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools has reversed course on the best way to teach science to struggling high school students, warning principals away from an introductory chemistry/physics course that was recently touted as a jump-start to success.

Now officials say that class, called physical science, can leave students with a transcript that won't get them into college. In January, they advised counselors to steer clear of physical science in 2011-12.

Some schools reacted even faster. Hopewell High, for instance, converted its second-semester physical science classes to chemistry.

"We're just trying to get principals to understand that it really limits a child's future" to take physical science in place of chemistry, said Cindy Moss, CMS' top science official. "I think our job is to keep the doors open as wide as possible."

The dilemma: Science can be a springboard to highly paid careers, and kids who don't take challenging courses in high school may be shut out.

But for teens who can't pass chemistry or physics, physical science is an option that helps them earn a diploma.

Results of a recent "nation's report card" science exam highlight the challenge. In CMS, fewer than one in 10 black and low-income eighth-graders scored proficient. Only one in three mastered even basic skills.

The students who took those eighth-grade tests in 2009 are sophomores now, if they've stayed on track. Until now, one of their options for 11th-grade science was the easier introductory course, which could be followed by chemistry. Last year, almost 2,800 students took physical science.

Nancy Kauffman, who teaches chemistry at Hopewell, fears some students lack the math and science skills to master the harder class, leaving teachers with a dilemma: Flunk the kids or water down the course.

If some CMS students get credit for chemistry but show up at college unprepared, "that's going to be a stigma attached to CMS."

Changes in teaching

Moss says the solution is better science instruction, starting in elementary school and continuing through the higher grades. Many current high school students got little science in the younger grades, when the focus was on boosting reading and math skills, CMS officials acknowledge.

Moss says elementary science has improved, and CMS is working on using scientific technology, construction toys and everyday experience to help older students relate.

Moss has consistently argued that physical science isn't an appropriate high school course, even though the state allows it to meet graduation requirements. Students who don't take chemistry won't get into many four-year colleges and may fall short for some community-college programs.

In CMS, the pendulum has swung dramatically. In 2004, physical science had nearly disappeared; only two high schools offered it, with 150 students taking the exam.

In 2008, after the state revamped its high-school science exams, enrollment in the course exploded, peaking with more than 3,350 CMS students in 2009. Independence, Hopewell and Vance had the largest physical-science participation last year.

In 2008, Chief Academic Officer Ann Clark defended physical science as a way of "queuing kids up for success." Ideally, she said, they'd move on to chemistry.

At Hopewell, Kauffman says she's seen that. She recently got an e-mail from a former student who took physical science followed by chemistry, she said. He was letting her know how well he's doing in college chemistry.

Approaches vary

Because the state still allows physical science to meet graduation requirements, CMS isn't abolishing it outright.

But Clark said she has joined Moss in urging schools to avoid it.

Attitudes toward physical science vary district to district and school to school. Union County offers it at its traditional high schools and Central Academy of Technology and Arts. Some take it instead of chemistry or physics and some use it to build up to those classes, Union officials say.

Cabarrus County officials say physical science is generally the choice of students not bound for a four-year college, while the rest take chemistry.

In CMS, Moss says Harding High, a math/science and International Baccalaureate magnet, was one of the first to ditch physical science on the grounds that it doesn't prepare students for college.

Providence High, a high-scoring suburban school, plans to keep it because the school has an excellent physical science teacher, she said.

Such teachers are rare, says Moss: "You have to be an expert in chemistry, physics and struggling students, and that is not a skill set normally found in one teacher."