Half of NYC 8th-graders failing science

The New York Post reports:

Barely half of city eighth-graders passed statewide science exams last year — leaving scores relatively unchanged in the subject over nearly a decade.
The results showed 53.2 percent of eighth-graders scoring proficiently on the exam last year, compared to about 54 percent of eighth-graders who passed the tests in 2003.
In 2008, the year before the curriculum was changed in eighth-grade science, 51.5 percent of kids passed the exams.