Idaho flunks national K-12 science standards review
Report
COEUR d'ALENE - A new national study of kindergarten- through-12th grade science curriculum standards shows efforts are falling significantly short in more than 75 percent of the nation's states including Idaho.
Idaho is among 10 states receiving failing grades in the report released today by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a national education policy think tank.
The report calls most states' science standards "mediocre to awful" and says the Gem State's science standards for public schools "contain precious little science."
It goes on to say that Idaho's standards are "remarkable in their almost total disregard for the essential content necessary to educate children in the sciences. With the exception of earth and space sciences-exceptional only in juxtaposition to the rest-no discipline receives even remotely adequate coverage."
One of the major problems across the country, according to the report, is schools' failure to adequately address evolution. The report says "anti-evolutionary pressures" pose a threat to science standards in most states.
In addition to deeming Idaho's life science curriculum to be inadequate, the report says that in Idaho, "The full extent of the treatment of evolution, which comes in seventh grade, is this standard: 'Describe how natural selection explains species change over time.' That's it."
Other problems in Idaho and other states are standards that lack clarity for educators, vague"inquiry-based learning" methods and a failure to adequately link math to science.
Idaho State Department of Education Communications Director Melissa McGrath responded by email to The Press's request for a comment on the report:
"We appreciate feedback on our content standards from groups and organizations and will review this report in full; however, the most important feedback comes from Idaho teachers, institutions of higher education and the business community who know what it takes to prepare every Idaho student to live, work and succeed in the 21st Century.
In Idaho, we are constantly working to make sure our content standards are rigorous and relevant so every Idaho student graduates from high school prepared to go on and succeed in postsecondary education and the workforce. We review our standards every five years to ensure they keep pace with what students should know and be able to do after high school. The State Department of Education worked with Idaho teachers in 2010 to revise the science standards. Now, we are in the process of creating better assessments to measure student achievement in learning the science standards.
In addition, Idaho is actively working with other states on the Next Generation of Science Standards (NGSS). In 2009, Idaho joined 46 other states to develop Common Core State Standards for math and English language arts. The state adopted these standards last year. They are more rigorous and comparable with any other country in the world. Idaho is now working with other states on a similar effort to develop common science standards, which states will then have the choice to adopt if they want. Idaho educators in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) are participating in this process."