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Blueprint for Science Standards Earns B+ From Think Tank
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Erik Robelen
Education Week
10/4/2011
A framework for common standards in science issued in July by the National Research Council has been handed a grade of B-plus by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute in a new report. Among the concerns identified is whether the document provides "undue prominence" to engineering and technology.
The report issued today by the Washington-based think tank gives the framework a solid seven-out-of-seven when it comes to "content and rigor," but also "finds the strong content immersed in much else that could distract, confuse, and disrupt the priorities of framework users, even though substantial portions of the 'much else' have some merit," write Fordham Institute President Chester E. Finn Jr. and senior director Kathleen Porter Magee. (Finn served as an assistant education secretary in the Reagan administration.)
Beyond concerns about the treatment of engineering and technology, the report suggests too much attention goes to "science process" skills. It also raises concerns that the framework's extensive discussion of equity and diversity," especially in its emphasis on differentiating content and pedagogy for some minority groups, risks contradicting the framework's own mandate to frame the same science content for all young people.
