Jul 8 - Texas Schools drop Common Science Standards

New nationally developed common science standards may be on the horizon, but it is not likely that they will make their way into Texas classrooms soon.


Make that a “zero percent chance,” said Barbara Cargill, the Republican chairwoman of Texas’ State Board of Education.

The Next Generation Science Standards — produced by the National Research Council, the National Science Teachers[..]ociation and the American[..]ociation for the Advancement of Science — are intended to chart a common science curriculum for students in kindergarten through high school in every state. The standards are expected to be complete early next year.

But in Texas, where the curriculum-setting State Board of Education has had high-profile skirmishes over science education, there will be no rush to put them in effect.

“I don’t see it happening, with the fact that we just adopted science standards, and we’ve been averse to adopting anything else coming from a national origin,” said Thomas Ratliff, a Republican who represents northeast Texas on the 15-member board.

Texas officials like Gov. Rick Perry and Robert Scott, the former education commissioner, have balked at common core state standards in areas like reading and math because they have said that they represent an unwarranted federal intrusion into the classroom. Those standards have been adopted by 45 states. The Next Generation curriculum covers potential political minefields like climate change and evolution, which the common core curriculum did not.

But there is another reason it is unlikely that the state that educates almost one-tenth of American public school students will be following the national lead on science education.

Texas typically updates its curriculum every 8 to 10 years. The State Board of Education tackled science standards in 2009, when the state became ground zero in the battle over how evolution should be taught. The result was a state curriculum that required students to learn the strengths and weakness of scientific theories like evolution. Though those standards have been in the classroom since the 2010-11 school year, the state is just in the initial stages of acquiring updated textbooks.

Ms. Cargill, of The Woodlands, said the 2009 standards had been well received by students and teachers, and there was no reason to change course.

Twenty-six states are directly participating in the development of the new standards, and Texas is not one of them. But four Texas educators are on the 41-member writing team — among them Ramon Lopez, a physics professor at the University of Texas at Arlington.

“It’s giving states the power to adopt this material, and if they choose not to use it, they can use it to inform what they are doing,” Mr. Lopez said.

But the reluctance of Texas education leaders to embrace nationally developed science curriculums shows the logistical challenges involved in pushing for widespread adoption. And despite the supporters’ insistence that the standards have been created “by states, for states,” there are already stirrings of the anti-federal-government backlash that greeted the common core standards.

Legislators in South Carolina — a state that agreed to adopt common core curriculums in language arts and math — have included language in this year’s budget prohibiting the use of taxpayer funds to put “quasi-national” science standards in effect.

Ms. Cargill said that when the time came to revise the science curriculum, the board would look at the Next Generation standards. But she said the standards would most likely serve as a reference guide, not a rule book.

“We write our own standards here in Texas,” she said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/08/us...soon.html?_r=1

I wouldn't be surprised if the rest of the south followed suit. I'm not gonna say WHY I believe they're doing that because people will get too emotional and this thread will turn into a million pages.

But it stuff like this that keeps American students behind other countries in education. Right now, India and Asian countries along with many others are kicking America's[..] in science and math. In fact, we've fallen to number 25. And they wonder why American companies are outsourcing to other countries for technological innovation.

Well thanks for not telling us why america is doing this. You are really helpful to the problem.

JESUS !!es
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Let it out bx broha

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america! !! yeah!

So i guess people still think the Earth is 10,000 years old [pic]

Good ol Texas [pic]

I wonder how they feel being constantly behind in everything. The biggest problem America has is it's reluctance to change. Their personal ideals and beliefs go into education more than facts in some parts of the south. A lot of the parents involved with what's going on are more !!in opinionated than educated. Just because you don't believe or agree with something doesn't mean you can't make yourself and your children more knowledgeable on the subject. At least then they can legitimately argue with facts on why they don't like something. School in general gets pushed to the back burner when it comes to what's important. Then they say !! like "Why are test scores so low? [pic] "

The first two guys I quoted gave you a hint.

But to answer your question: I wouldn't say it's the whole America, just the south a.k.a the bible belt. For some time, there's already been a strong push by leaders in southern communities to remove science from school curriculum and replace it with "intelligent design" which is a fancy name for creationism. In other words, they want to replace science classes with religion.

[pic] reminds me of the story i read about a school in louisiana teaching that the loch ness monster is a living dinosaur to disprove evolution

We shoulda just let these niccas secede.. [pic]

I haven't heard about that one but is sounds plausible. And to think.....I'm from Louisiana. [pic]

I can see why they don't want to change if they're still trying to implement new textbooks. That !! is super expensive.

I wonder how Texas ranks on a scale of all 50 states for science, math and reading? Anyone know?

It is harder in the US than foreign countries because we are such a mixture of beliefs and customs. It's not like in India where everyone is Indian and they have one formalized system. America will always face that difficulty simply because of the melting pot this country was constructed to be.