Science Standards Revision: Assumptions
Minnesota Academic Standards Revision Process
Assumptions for Guiding the Standards Committee’s Work
Science
1. Members of the Standards Committee will commit to the committee’s meeting schedule and workload.
2. In each content area, the standards and benchmarks should be aligned with the knowledge and skills needed for college readiness and advanced work (Minn Statute 120B.023, Subd. 2). The Minnesota P-16 Education Partnership will be drafting recommendations for strengthening the K-12 science standards to better reflect college and work readiness expectations, and their work may inform the revision of the K-12 science standards.
3. Technology and information literacy standards must be embedded into the standards in each content area (Minn Statute 120B.023, Subd. 2). This may include standards from sources such as the Minnesota Educational Media Organization (MEMO), International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) and the International Technology and Education Association (ITEA).
4. Technology/Engineering standards will be included in the current Scientific Enterprise sub-strand of the Minnesota Academic Science Standards document.
5. Science standards should be revised with the assumption that all students will complete Biology and, beginning with the graduating class of 2015, Chemistry or Physics in addition to other graduation requirements (Minn Statutes 120B.023, Subd. 2; and 120B.024).
6. Science standards should encompass the following four strands at all grade bands:
• History and Nature of Science
• Physical Science
• Earth and Space Science, and
• Life Science.
Physical Science may be separated into Physics and Chemistry at the 9-12 grade band for the purposes of compliance with graduation requirement for the graduating class of 2015 (Minn Statute 120B.023, Subd. 2).
7. Science Standards will reflect the scientific facts, laws, and theories of the natural and engineered world and will not include supernatural, occult or religious ideas. In addition, the following benchmark from the 2004 standards will be included in the revised standards for grades 9-12:
The student will be able to explain how scientific and technological innovations as well as new evidence can challenge portions of or entire accepted theories and models including but not limited to cell theory, atomic theory, theory of evolution, plate tectonic theory, germ theory of disease and big bang theory.
8. The standards and benchmarks identify the learning that is to be mastered by all students by the end of the grade bands K-2, 3-5, 6-8 and 9-12. As such, they represent the core, rather than the totality, of a school’s science curriculum.
9. Standards for environmental literacy will be identified and/or developed to comply with Minn Statute 115A.073. The Greenprint for Minnesota and the Environmental Literacy Scope and Sequence will serve as resources for committee members.
10. The committee “must include the contributions of Minnesota American Indian tribes and communities as they related to the academic standards during the review and revision of the required academic standards.” (Minn Statute 120B.021, subd. 1)
Quality Criteria for Content Standards
1. Standards should be clear and understandable to educators and the public.
2. Standards are built by consensus and developed by the constituencies who will use them and are affected by them.
3. The standards should be developmental, meaning that they provide a clear sense of increased knowledge and sophistication of skills. Standards must be developed over a range of grade levels or grade bands; they should not be mentioned only once at a particular grade level or grade band.
4. Standards should be useful for defining and supporting good instruction.
5. All standards and benchmarks should be assessable, either by a large-scale assessment (i.e., state test) or other means of assessment (e.g., paper and pencil tests, projects, teacher observations, and other classroom-based assessments). Standards and benchmarks should have verbs that indicate assessable action such as “compare,” “explain,” and “analyze,” rather than verbs such as “understand,” “explore,” or “appreciate.” (Use the CCSSO document on writing standards to provide guidance)
6. Standards and benchmarks should be an appropriate “grain size:” Standards should be specific enough to provide direction for assessment and to guide curriculum, but broad enough to capture the “big ideas” (i.e., the major concepts and essential skills) and to allow for a variety of curriculum approaches (e.g., a sequential or integrated approach in mathematics). Each benchmark should be limited to one concept or skill, and the concept of skill should be substantive enough to require more than one class period to teach it.
7. The knowledge and skills of the content should be reflected in a manageable number of standards and benchmarks, as well as a prioritization of those that are considered most essential. The trend in testing is toward development of tests that provide rich diagnostic information. To do this, it is better to include more questions that assess the most salient knowledge and skills rather than only a couple of questions for each of the scores of benchmarks that could be developed. Thus, the number and ranking of standards and benchmarks should allow for more reliable test information about an individual student’s knowledge and skills.
8. There should be consistent use of terminology within a content area.
The Standards Committee may provide recommendations to MDE for improving the format of the standards.
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