Rhode Island on forefront of science standards in U.S.

GOLD STANDARD: Rhode Island College Assistant Professor of Science Education and Coordinator of Secondary Science Education Rudolf Kraus says a major focus of the new standards is to engage students in science. / PBN PHOTO/BRIAN MCDONALD
GOLD STANDARD: Rhode Island College Assistant Professor of Science Education and Coordinator of Secondary Science Education Rudolf Kraus says a major focus of the new standards is to engage students in science. / PBN PHOTO/BRIAN MCDONALD

While standardized testing has generated much heated debate in Rhode Island this year, a sweeping change to the public school approach to teaching science seems to have passed with little controversy.
Rhode Island was the first state in the nation to adopt the Next Generation Science Standards, with approval by the R.I. Board of Education on May 23. So far, two other states have adopted the standards – Kentucky on June 5 and Kansas on June 11, according to the National Center for Science Education website.
Many states have been involved in developing the new national roadmap for science education and are expected to approve the new standards, said Rhode Island College assistant professor of science education and coordinator of secondary science education Rudolf Kraus.
The new standards make official the changes in science curriculum and methods of teaching that have been developing nationally for many years, said Kraus, who will teach a class at RIC in the fall to train teachers on how to align their teaching with the new standards.
“In the last 15 years, we’ve had two major changes,” said Kraus, “A lot of educational research has been done on how students learn science, so the content of what’s taught is informed by that research,” said Kraus. “And science itself has made progress in that time. We know more about genetics and climate change, for example.”
A major focus of the new standards is getting students engaged in and doing science.
“It is no longer going to be acceptable for a science teacher to just talk about science and give a lecture followed by another lecture followed by a third lecture,” said Kraus.
“For at least one-third of the time, students should be doing science themselves. They should be collecting data. They should be deciding what it means and whether they need to re-do something to get better results,” said Kraus. “That way, they’re going to understand not just what the answer is, but how it was arrived at. … This is a big change from what used to be done.”
One example of a good high school next-generation-type science program Kraus has seen was around the issue of fossil fuels. “There are several schools in Rhode Island that are already teaching science that corresponds to the vision of the Next Generation Science Standards,” said Kraus. “One example is a program that’s underway at Ponaganset High School in the Foster-Glocester school district. The students understand that we have foreign policy problems as a result of our need for oil. It’s costly. It pollutes. They’re building a biodiesel car and making the fuel needed to run it.”
The adoption of the Next Generation Science Standards is part of a process of implementation that will take several years, said R.I. Education Commissioner Deborah A. Gist.
“These standards are a pretty significant difference compared to our old standards,” Gist said. “This is really moving from science strictly as content to science that includes content but also has a significant focus on the application of knowledge. … [Students] will be asked to act and think like scientists or engineers.
“A really big change is the engineering design component embedded within all the different areas of science – life science, physical science, earth science and space science,” said Gist. “So students are solving problems by applying the concepts that they’re learning. So it’s not just what they’re learning, it’s how they’re learning.”
The Next Generation Science Standards were developed by a consortium of 26 states, said Gist.
Peter McLaren, the science and technology specialist for the R.I. Department of Education, was very involved in the national group that developed the standards.
“Every single concept of science is backed up with a practice,” said McLaren. “It’s not just facts or memorizing. It’s about taking the concept and applying it, using practices of science and engineering. The student has to be able to design and develop a model. The student hast to be able to argue from evidence, to listen to people, so there’s discourse.”
While there has been considerable tension between Gist and the state’s two teachers’ unions over a variety of issues, Rhode Island Federation of Teachers and Health Professionals President Frank Flynn said the national union, the American Federation of Teachers, was in the forefront of supporting common core standards in English/language arts and math. “It’s a huge undertaking that’s going to require a huge amount of professional development and resources,” said Flynn. “We’re excited about it, but it’s rigorous.”
The new national science standards are one more change on the heels of many substantial changes put in place under Gist’s leadership, said Kraus.
One of the most controversial issues has been the evaluation of teachers based on the academic improvement of their students.
The new standards go into effect, officially, in the fall, even though the details will take years to implement and assess.
“One of the things that’s going to cause an initial delay is that teachers are still held accountable for how their students do on the [New England Common Assessment Program] tests, which is lined up with the old state standards,” said Kraus.
“My guess is that given the climate we’re in now, you’ll see a lot of teachers pay lip service to the new standards and really keep an eye on the old ones until there’s a matching assessment for the new ones, and then they’ll switch over,” said Kraus.
“It’s because the situation has made it so that their jobs and their livelihoods are dependent on how their students do on these tests,” Kraus said.
One major advantage of the new standards is that they are an important step toward what business leaders have been asking for and working toward, said Gist. The business community wants to develop a better-trained workforce, especially at all levels of science and technology, to help attract new business to the state, said Gist.
But the standards are one more big change in education in what some teachers have said is a change-weary environment.
“In the long-run, these standards will help us out,” said Kraus. “In the short-run, another large sweeping change put in quickly may not do great things for morale. •

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