The Thomas B. Fordham Foundation recently released the results of a study called "The State of State Science Standards 2005". The press release states:
The State of State Science Standards 2005—the first comprehensive study of science academic standards conducted since 2000—appraised the quality of each state's K-12 science standards as they are rushing to meet the No Child Left Behind Act's mandate for testing in this critical subject. The results are mixed.
Fifteen states flunked, and another seven earned "D" grades. Nine states and the District of Columbia merited only a mediocre "C." One-quarter of low-scoring states dropped by two letter grades since Fordham last reviewed science standards in 2000. The remaining nineteen states earned grades of "A" or "B," and of these, eight (or almost half) showed marked improvement over the past five years.
I'm none too pleased to report that our fair state of Wisconsin received a big fat F.
The Wisconsin Model Academic Standards announce confidently that they "set clear and specific goals for teaching and learning." That was not the judgment of our review. They are, in fact, generally vague and nonspecific, very heavy in process, and so light in science discipline content as to render them nearly useless—at least as a response to problems for which state learning standards are supposed to be a remedy.
"Science,"we are told in the Standards, "follows a generally accepted set of rules."Would that we were told what those rules were! More to the point, would that the teachers making lessons, curricula, and tests were given real guidance on those putative rules of science and the degree to which they differ, if they do, from "accepted sets of rules" in other human occupations. Grade: "F."
Here we are trying to regain the world lead in stem cell research and we're not even concerned with trying to train those among us to take the reins. But we're not at the bottom. Kansas' C grade was demoted to an F-, no doubt due to their rejection of evolution.
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