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What is the latest update pdf for the science common core standards?

Hi Virginia and Arlene, It will certainly be great when the science common core standards come to fruition. In the meantime, I have found the common core reading standards for literacy in science and technical subjects (6 - 12)to be very helpful in gearing teaching of process skills and scientific argumentation into the language arts/reading curricular areas. Carolyn

I really think that having a set of core science standards will be a wonderful development for science education. It seems that often we are recreating the wheel and expending a lot of effort and time at the local level by having each state, and sometimes even each county, develop their own standards and then develop assessments to see how students are progressing toward their standards. It also makes it difficult to compare how students are doing from state to state when our state-level assessments are different. From a curriculum development perspective, I look forward to having more access to the wonderful curricular items that are available to us by having them linked to a common national set of science standards. What do the rest of you folks think? What are the pros and cons of developing a common set of national science standards? I would love to get a feel for the differing pros and cons of this effort!

I think that a common core of standards, while helpful, will still lead to states "updating" their own standards so they can test their students. A common core that all states support would make life much easier for students (and teachers) who move a great deal - military children, some preacher's children, children whose parents move regularly for career reasons, etc. The problem is that it would potentially lead to a national standardized test that could be used to compare states. As it is, most of the standardized tests used are made by the same companies so there isn't a great deal of difference anyway; but I think states are uncomfortable giving up some of their power or leverage or whatever to the federal gov't. I know Texas would not support national standards alone currently.

By the way, thank you Arlene, for the updated information. I've downloaded it to share with my students.

Hi Bambi, I'm interested in the problems you foresee with national standards. We recently moved from TN to WA and I'm very concerned about the different levels of science instruction. This has really gotten me thinking about the benefits of national standards. Would you mind elaborating a little about this topic? Thanks! Kendra

Hi Everyone! Bambi said, "The problem is that it would potentially lead to a national standardized test that could be used to compare states. As it is, most of the standardized tests used are made by the same companies so there isn't a great deal of difference anyway; but I think states are uncomfortable giving up some of their power or leverage or whatever to the federal gov't. I know Texas would not support national standards alone currently." I agree, Bambi. It will be an enormous feat if all 50 states can come to agreement about what to teach and when. Texas and California are examples of states that have science curricula that have major differences. If an entire state is not interested in or willing to include the teaching of evolution (as an example), then no agreement will be reached.

Kendra asked me to elaborate on my comments about the potential issues regarding national standards and the possibility of a national standardized test. One similar example is that of National Board Certification. Most states still require recipients of NBC to complete their testing program and meet their standards even though NBS is highly rigorous and more predictive of teacher success with students than multiple choice certification tests that states use. I spoke to one NBC science teacher who moved to Texas; and although her principal was excited to hire her, he still made her send out a letter to the parents stating that she was not highly qualified by Texas standards (a state rule - do others have that?). Once she passed the state test and received her certification, she was able to send a follow up letter to the parents stating that she was now highly qualified. I just don't see all fifty states agreeing on what to teach at each grade level as Carolyn said. My state is one of the worst offenders - we don't use Praxis for our certification tests. We have our own TExES test which at certain points was written by the same company as Praxis. As a child who moved a great deal while I was in school (I missed all circle math and had to teach myself how to do it for the SAT and again for the GRE), I love the idea of national standards. I'm just pessimistic about what will follow after they are developed.

Update: Latest rumors have the Science Conceptual Framework becoming public any day now. There is also conversations happening at the state level to see if there are states that are interested in taking the lead in the development of the Next Generation Standards along with Achieve. Those states that are interested will go through an application process. I believe they are choosing 6 lead states. I Know geography will be one of the factors taken into consideration when determining the 6 states. KAthy

Update on anticipated Conceptual Framework Release:

Great discussion thread! I agree that it will be very difficult to get all states to agree on science standards. After all, we have had the National Science Education Standards (National Academies Press) for years, but each state still has it's own set of science standards.

Nonethelss, it is definately worth the effort to work towards a professional concensus on what is truly valued and considered 'best practice' in science education.

Here is a posting from June 29, 2011 regarding delays in posting of the Conceptual Framework for the National Science Standards. http://www7.nationalacademies.org/bose/Standards_Framework_Homepage.html
According to this posting, the document will be delayed into sometime in summer 2011.

Good news, according to this website update, once completed PDF versions will be made available at no cost by the National Academies Press.

Dorothy

Yipee! The pre-publication copy of the A Framework for K-12 Science Education is now available! The National Research Council is hosting a web seminar on Tuesday 26 July/6:30 pm ET to explore the major concepts in the framework. You can find more information and register for the web seminar here.