Framing Academic Standards for the Next Generation
A joint effort between the National Research Council, the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA), the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and Achieve is underway to create the foundations for all students to have a solid K-12 science education.
Starting in fall 2009, the National Research Council convened an expert panel to lay the groundwork for the development of new national science standards.
The creation of the framework and the Next Generation Science Standards are two separate tasks. The framework provides a vision “to organize and direct the standards,” commented NSTA Past President Harold Pratt.
This effort is following a different developmental pathway than the recent Common Core State Standards Initiative to develop common standards for K-12 Mathematics and English Language Arts. The process for developing science standards takes into account the importance of having the scientific and educational research communities identify core ideas in science and articulate them across grade bands. That is why the first step, constructing a Framework for K–12 Science Education, was needed—to ensure scientific validity and accuracy, as it has been fifteen years since the last revision of science education standards at the national level.
Resting on feedback from educators, education researchers, policymakers, scientists, and the public, the framework identifies three dimensions of science necessary for students to understand how science works:
- Scientific and engineering practices;
- Crosscutting concepts that unify the study of science and engineering through their common application across fields; and
- Core ideas in four disciplinary areas--physical sciences; life sciences; earth and space sciences; and engineering, technology, and the applications of science.
The existing framework does not, however, articulate how these three dimensions come together or outline specific learning performances. These items will be outlined in the upcoming Next Generation Science Standards.
Along with the 36-person writing team, 20 partner states have been identified to assist in the development of the Next Generation Science Standards. These states have agreed to convene broad-based committees to provide feedback on the standards and any potential implementation issues. This group will be used not only to direct the writing of the standards, but also to problem-solve with the writing team. The 20 lead state partners include Arizona, California, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Vermont, Washington and West Virginia. In order to be considered, states had to submit a letter with the signature of the Chief State School Officer and the chair of the State Board of Education.
Once the Next Generation Standards are finalized, “then states and school districts have to decide what to do with them,” Pratt said. The 20 partner states will lead the state-level adoption and implementation.
Project Learning Tree will remain on the pulse of the national science standards development and implementation discussion throughout the coming months. PLT state partners and trained educators will be alerted to the public commenting periods as appropriate. At the national level, PLT is participating in standards-based conversations and meetings held by the National Science Teachers Association, Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies, National Environmental Education Foundation, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Ecological Society of America, Education Week, and more. Stay tuned!
You can download a free PDF of the framework from the National Academies website.
Other helpful websites include:
- Achieve (http://www.achieve.org)
- The Common Core State Standards Initiative (http://www.corestandards.org/)
- Next Generation Science standards (http://www.nextgenscience.org/)
- National Science Teachers Association (http://www.nsta.org)
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