NSTA WebNews Digest

Education News: National / State Standards

Science Standards Win OK in First State With Rhode Island Vote

5/24/2013 - Education Week
Rhode Island has become the first state to adopt the Next Generation Science Standards, when its state board of education voted unanimously to approve them. It is one of the 26 "lead state partners" that helped to develop the standards in collaboration with several national organizations. At least two other states, Kentucky and Maine, have signaled that they would likely vote on adoption this spring, and many more may well follow suit later this year, including California and Kansas.

Get Ready for NextGen Science: New National Standards Promise to Revolutionize the Content Area

5/21/2013 - District Administration
Recognizing that American K12 students have fallen behind foreign students in their grasp of scientific principles, educators have devised a new set of teaching guidelines that will radically change the way science is taught in classrooms across the United States—including recommendations that climate change and evolution be taught as core elements of scientific knowledge.

Adoption of New Science Standards May Start With Rhode Island

5/16/2013 - Education Week
Rhode Island may prove to be the first state to adopt the Next Generation Science Standards issued in final form last month. The state board of education is expected to vote on the standards at its next meeting, on May 23.

Common Science Standards Face Capacity Issues

5/15/2013 - Education Week
With the completion of new standards intended to reshape science education, the real heavy lifting now begins.

Science Standards for the Next Generation

5/14/2013 - Science Friday
The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) that were released last month outline the science content that students are expected to master at each grade level in the U.S. They’re the culmination of a long process—supported by 26 states and led by the non-profit organization ACHIEVE—to improve America’s K-12 science education and develop consistent performance expectations state to state.

Science Standards Are True to NRC Framework, Reviewers Conclude

4/29/2013 - Education Week
A panel of reviewers convened by the National Research Council has concluded that the final Next Generation Science Standards issued this month are consistent with an NRC framework document that sought to guide their development.

Standards in Science Unveiled

4/17/2013 - Education Week (requires registration)
The final version of standards aimed at reshaping the focus and delivery of science instruction in U.S. schools was publicly unveiled last week , setting the stage for states—many of which helped craft the standards—to take the next step and consider adopting them as their own.

New Guidelines Call for Broad Changes in Science Education

4/10/2013 - The New York Times
Educators unveiled new guidelines on Tuesday that call for sweeping changes in the way science is taught in the United States. The guidelines, known as the Next Generation Science Standards, are the first broad national recommendations for science instruction since 1996. They were developed by a consortium of 26 state governments and several groups representing scientists and teachers.

Common Science Standards Make Formal Debut

4/9/2013 - Education Week
More than three years in the making, the Next Generation Science Standards are designed to provide a greater emphasis on depth over breadth in studying the subject. They seek not only to provide students with a foundation of essential knowledge, but also to lead young people to apply their learning through scientific inquiry and the engineering-design process to deepen understanding.

What Do You Think of the New Next Generation Science Standards?

4/9/2013 - The New York Times
The New York Times invites readers to share their thoughts on the Next Generation Science Standards, released today.

Science Revolution Heading to Illinois Schools

3/25/2013 - Chicago Tribune
As early as kindergarten, all students in Illinois could be engaged in science and engineering practices, from analyzing data to defining problems and designing solutions. By high school they'd be deep into engineering design and investigating solutions to global challenges, such as maintaining the biodiversity of ecosystems. Science education is undergoing a revolution that could hit Illinois classrooms as early as next school year.

Climate-Change Science Poised to Enter Nation's Classrooms

3/7/2013 - Bloomberg
New national science standards that make the teaching of global warming part of the public school curriculum are slated to be released this month, potentially curtailing climate skepticism in the nation's classrooms.

Teachers Say They Are Unprepared for Common Core

2/26/2013 - Education Week
Even as the Common Core State Standards are being put into practice across most of the country, nearly half of teachers feel unprepared to teach them, especially to disadvantaged students, according to a new survey.

Engineering Neglected in Draft Science Standards, Some Advocates Say

2/4/2013 - Education Week
The latest draft of the common science standards is sparking criticism from some engineering education proponents, who say the document gives the discipline short shrift and represents a step backward from an earlier public draft.

States Soon to Weigh Science-Standards Adoption

1/30/2013 - Education Week
With common standards in science set to be finalized in March, states will soon face the dilemma of embracing them as their own or going their own way, raising the question of how common the Next Generation Science Standards will ultimately prove to be.

The Science Class of the (Not Too Distant) Future

12/20/2012 - CNN: School of Thought blog
Science classrooms in America will begin to change next year, when 26 states are expected to adopt the Next Generation Science Standards. “The Next Generation Science Standards… could potentially have a profound change on how we teach science,” said Gerry Wheeler, executive director of the National Science Teacher Association. “Parents need to know it’s a different kind of classroom their child's going to see.”

What High School Parents Should Know About Common Core

12/11/2012 - U.S. News & World Report
When the Common Core State Standards take full effect in 2014, they will impact more than 42 million K-12 students. While some schools and districts are holding information sessions to educate parents on the new standards, most still know very little about what the Common Core entails.

Common Core Sparks War Over Words

12/7/2012 - The Washington Post (requires free registration)
The Common Core State Standards in English, which have been adopted in 46 states and the District, call for public schools to ramp up nonfiction so that by 12th grade students will be reading mostly “informational text” instead of fictional literature. But as teachers excise poetry and classic works of fiction from their classrooms, those who designed the guidelines say it appears that educators have misunderstood them.

Next Draft of Common Science Standards to Hit in January

12/3/2012 - Education Week
An ambitious effort to develop common science standards across states will soon face a second—and final—round of public vetting and feedback. The new draft, crafted through a partnership that has brought together education officials from 26 states, is now slated to arrive the first week of January.

Literacy Instruction Expected to Cross Disciplines

11/13/2012 - Education Week
There is a call in the Common Core State Standards to teach literacy across the curriculum. The English/language arts standards adopted by all but four states specifically highlight the teaching of reading, writing, and other literacy objectives in science, history/social studies, and technical subjects. Around the nation, education leaders are grappling with how best to help teachers and schools reflect this cross-disciplinary dimension.

State Ed Board Looks at Defining 'College and Career Readiness'

11/12/2012 - Lawrence Journal-World
The Kansas State Board of Education will be asked next week to begin thinking about a formal definition of the term "college- and career-ready."

Standards Backers Seek Out Support of Parents

9/26/2012 - Education Week
Backers of the common-core academic standards have worked for years to secure the support of a diverse collection of elected officials, academic scholars, and school employees. Now they're ramping up efforts to court a different and potentially critically important audience: parents.

Common Core Reaches Into Science Classes, Survey Finds

9/25/2012 - Education Week
The Common Core State Standards aren't just changing instruction in math and English language/arts, a new survey data suggest. They're also finding their way into a lot of science classrooms.

Kan. School Board Likes Drift of Science Standards

9/20/2012 - Education Week
Science standards that are under development received high marks Wednesday from the Kansas state school board for pushing hands-on instruction over textbook learning.

High School Students Need to Think, Not Memorize

9/17/2012 - U.S. News & World Report
New education standards will affect the way regular and AP courses are taught.

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