tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5776587.post7506955659723130873..comments2023-11-03T04:00:24.785-04:00Comments on Kentucky School News and Commentary: Arguing science standards does disservice to studentsRichard Dayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14586435007687942849noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5776587.post-31399867284882176562013-08-24T22:17:43.575-04:002013-08-24T22:17:43.575-04:00Richard,
Regarding content versus process, I agre...Richard,<br /><br />Regarding content versus process, I agree that both are important. The problem is the new standards seem VERY thin on the content part. <br /><br />And, I firmly believe you need to establish a basis of common content before you can begin to really assess thinking.<br /><br />I suspect once we get a few years of testing under our belts with the new tests that teachers are going to be just as upset as they were with KIRIS testing.Richard Inneshttp://www.bipps.orgnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5776587.post-81066910703803250442013-08-14T14:53:01.400-04:002013-08-14T14:53:01.400-04:00Thanks for the comment, Richard.
I have not looke...Thanks for the comment, Richard.<br /><br />I have not looked closely enough at the standards to know what I would think of them. I am trusting that P-20 educators have weighed in appropriately such that high school expectations match college readiness. It is my understanding that there is a teaching curriculum beyond what shows up in the standards.<br /><br />I don't have a comment on your test score data other than to wonder why you are pulling out white kids only. At Cassidy, if I had been ballsy enough to point out how our white kids were beating everybody else's white kids, while soft-selling the fact that we also had the largest achievement gap in the state, I dare say I would have been shown the door.<br /><br />Anytime we focus on single pieces of the puzzle we stand a chance of missing the total picture.<br /><br />The thing that struck me about KERA, had nothing to do with process. As a principal at the time, I promise you the biggest obstacle I faced was the complete lack of curriculum. I wasn't sure what to ask my teachers to teach for the first five years or so. We had Transformations, but you couldn't teach from it. The tested curriculum changed every year as schools were expected to hit a moving target. There is surely no lack of curriculum today. Today's teachers are much better schooled on state expectations than the early days of KERA.<br /><br />Content knowledge is very important, no doubt. But our students gaining a fundamental understanding of scientific processes sounds awfully important to me too. It's not an "either/or" choice. More like "both/and."Richard Dayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14586435007687942849noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5776587.post-19085786114768563372013-08-14T13:50:50.386-04:002013-08-14T13:50:50.386-04:00The unfortunate thing about the science controvers...The unfortunate thing about the science controversy is disputes about climate and evolution have hidden some much more serious deficiencies in the new standards. Those problems include the 1990 KERA era mistake that process is more important than content. They also include what seems to be a serious failure to complete the high school science instruction in areas of chemistry and physics that could leave kids seriously under-prepared to enter real college STEM courses. <br /><br />Those of us who were paying attention as KERA rolled out recall well that the same, process-trumps-content ideas were pushed from the beginning days of Kentucky’s unprecedented reform. It didn’t work out. <br /><br />In the 2011 NAEP 8th Grade Math Assessment, after more than two decades of nominally pushing process over content, Kentucky’s white students only statistically significantly outscored whites in three other states. White students in 39 other states outscored our white students by a statistically significant amount.<br /><br />Despite all the hype you have heard about science, in 2011 NAEP Grade 8 Science Kentucky did scarcely better. Whites here only outscored whites in four other states by a statistically significant amount. And, forget the poverty excuse. If we look only at students eligible for the federal school lunch program, Kentucky’s whites only outscored poor whites in two other states by a statistically significant amount. That’s all.<br /><br />The chemistry and physics deficiency baffles me. I don’t understand how so many educators can turn their back on the importance of these classical high school courses and the importance they have for student success in STEM in college. Somehow, the people who put NextGen Science Standards together talked themselves into this. This is going to be great news for students from other countries, who soon may find themselves the only ones adequately prepared for any STEM programs in US universities (not that this isn’t already a major trend).<br />Richard Inneshttp://www.bipps.orgnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5776587.post-51949435310411268062013-08-12T01:08:33.949-04:002013-08-12T01:08:33.949-04:00This is just flashpan effect. I suspect that this...This is just flashpan effect. I suspect that this hasn't been a significant issue up to this "new" adoption. We are just feeding into their desire for making this an issue by even responding. I don't want my science teacher trying to teach faith matters at school anymore than I want my Sunday school teacher trying to teach life science at church.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5776587.post-3068453476029529262013-08-11T14:13:10.081-04:002013-08-11T14:13:10.081-04:00Not only does arguing science standards do a disse...Not only does arguing science standards do a disservice to high school students, it reflects an anti-intellectual attitude towards knowledge that most Kentuckians have not seen since the fight over evolution in the Kentucky legislature in the 1920's. Sadly, it is resistance to change that continues to hold a good number of Kentuckians back to this day.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com