Long aware that people from working-class, low-income, and ethnic minority backgrounds do not visit, informal science education institutions often attribute lack of visitorship to cost or barriers to access. Dawson argues that such institutions are not inclusive due to social factors that reinforce the experience of difference, discomfort, and inaccessibility for these minority groups.
For over a decade, science educators have lamented the ways in which testing in reading and mathematics has reduced time for science instruction. Blank used 20 years of national teacher and student data to understand how time allocated to science instruction combines with student demographics to shape test scores. The study found a small but significant positive relationship between time on science instruction and performance.