Next Generation Standards

Background

In 2008, the National Governor’s Association (NGA) and the Chief Council of State School Officers (CCSSO) with support from the Department of Education launched a national effort to streamline and create a set of education standards in math and language arts known as Common Core Standards. 48 states have agreed in principle to voluntarily adopt these standards, and the Department of Education has funded two processes to create assessments that align with and support these new standards. The assessments are Partnership for Assessments of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCCS) and SMARTER Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC).

While there are a series of national science education standards (from the National Research Council (NRC), AAAS and NSTA), in 2009 science and all STEM related topics became next for a “standards upgrade”.

"National standards would certainly make it easier for students to change school districts and advance to the next grade in our mobile society as expectations would be the same in different locations," says Mary M. Kirchhoff, director of the Education Division at the American Chemical Society. "A coherent set of standards, based on learning outcomes and coupled with appropriate assessments, has the potential to provide all students with a deeper understanding of the process of science."
www.acs.org 9/1/2009

In 2009, the NRC's Board on Science Education (BOSE), with financial support from the Carnegie Corporation, embarked on reframing science standards using a framework approach. With stakeholders, experts, scientists and teachers, the NRC released the Conceptual Framework for the new Science Education Standards to inform the development of national science education standards. The framework and contents has received public comment and undergone rigorous report review before being handed over to ACHIEVE.

ACHIEVE is working with several committees and stakeholder groups to translate the Frameworks document into a useable set of standards that incorporate technology, engineering and math integration as part of the multi-dimensional approach to science teaching and learning.

Status/Update Summer 2011

The Conceptual Frameworks have been handed over to ACHIEVE and committees are working to craft an initial set of standards for review.  It is anticipate that the public will see a draft copy of the standards end of this year or early next year (2012). HOSP invited a member of the ACHIEVE staff to meet with our Board at our annual July Board meeting to share recent activity related to the Standards.  HOSP supports the idea of national standards and will work with ACHIEVE and other stakeholder groups to support the dissemination and implementation of standards with provisions for learning science by doing it. 

HOSP Position

• HOSP would like to see teachers and thereby students doing more science in classrooms across the U.S.
• HOSP wants to ensure that hands-on inquiry based approach remains viable and is obviously factored into the Next Generation Standards
• Any assessment or requirements related to Next Generation Standards, or awards (like RTT and I3 grants) should include a strong provision for hands-on inquiry based tools, materials and programs