August 15, 2012
In a recent article in Scientific American, it was suggested that the U.S. should adopt higher standards in science, and that all 50 states should adopt them.
When you check the literature on science standards, the main reason for aiming for higher standards (raising the bar) is because in the “Olympics” of international academic test taking, the U.S. never takes home the gold.… Read more
July 31, 2012
Guest Post by Anthony Cody
Note: This is the first of five posts on the dialog between Anthony Cody and his readers, and the Gates Foundation. This post was originally published on Anthony’s site over on Education Week Teacher. This dialog is a major contribution to educational reform. Anthony Cody is one of the leading voices in America questioning the nature of present day reform.… Read more
May 30, 2012
In May, 2012, the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) issued a report entitled: What Teacher Education Programs Teach About K – 12 Assessment. Anthony Cody mentioned this study in a recent post entitled Payola Policy: NCTQ Prepares its Hit on Schools of Education.
The title intrigued me, so I went over to the NCTQ website, and read and studied the report which is about what education courses teach about assessment.… Read more
May 16, 2012
Sometime ago, we argued that there is little evidence that the National Science Education Standards published in 1996 and the Next Generation Science Standards released for public view by Achieve are any different than the content oriented projects of the 1960s. The disciplines and content areas of science were seen as fundamental in those earlier National Science Foundation funded projects such as PSSC Physics, CBA Chemistry, BSCS Biology, ESCP Earth Science, ISCS, IPS, and to the National Science Education Standards published in the 1996.… Read more
May 15, 2012
Note: This is the second in a series of posts on the Next Generation Science Standards. You can read the first one here.
The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) are the latest iteration of writing science objectives for the eventual purpose of testing students’ knowledge of science. The objectives are developed by teams of experts, and rely on either their own domain analysis chart of science, or in this case the Framework for K-12 Science Education developed by another prestigious group of educators and scientists.… Read more
May 12, 2012
The Next Generation Science Standards are available for public view. Follow this link to the Science Standards Survey (feedback) Website.
According to Achieve, Inc., the corporation that is writing and publishing the standards:
The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) are distinct from prior science standards in that they integrate three dimensions within each standard and have intentional connections across standards.
… Read more
April 6, 2012
Why are we supporting the notion of a single set of science standards which has been done in mathematics and language reading/language art? We live in a democracy. One the of founding principles of education is that elected school board members for the more than 15,000 school districts are charged with making decisions for each local school district. What are we thinking?… Read more