March 11, 2004
For those who have been following this issue, the "sound bite" news is that the State Board adopted criteria that mandate at least 20-25% hands-on instruction. Correction: The adoption criteria inform the publishers about the requirements for the instructional materials that they submit for adoption. The State Board does not mandate any percentage of instructional time that teachers must devote to hands-on or any other form of science instruction. I received several messages indicating that my last message about the criteria caused confusion, especially about the 20-25% criterion. This is the exact wording of that section in the adopted criteria:
Publishers must provide evidence "demonstrating that the California Science Standards can be comprehensively taught from the submitted materials with hands-on activities composing at least 20 to 25 percent of the science instructional program (as specified in the California Science Framework). Hands-on activities must be cohesive, connected and build on each other to lead students to a comprehensive understanding of the California Science Content Standards."
The mistake I had made was in stating that the State Board was mandating at least 20 to 25% hands-on INSTRUCTION BY TEACHERS. The criteria do not mandate what teachers do. The criteria apply to what PUBLISHERS must do if they want their instructional materials to be adopted by the state. - Dr. Art Sussman
The California State Board of Education approved revised adoption criteria for K-8 science instructional materials. Publishers will use these criteria as the basis for the K-8 science texts that they submit in the Fall of 2006. The state uses the criteria to evaluate those instructional materials and decide if they are adopted or not. Districts can then use state funds to purchase adopted instructional materials.
The Curriculum Commission, an advisory commission to the State Board, had submitted a draft that included many provisions. One provision, in particular, caused concern and controversy within the state and nationally. That provision restricted hands-on instruction to a maximum of 20-25% of science instructional time. The State Board received many comments on this issue.
Ms. Rae Belisle, the Executive Director of the Board, helped craft a compromise revision that changed that mandate to a minimum of 20-25% hands-on instruction. Other language that provoked controversy (such as a prohibition on mentioning national standards) remained in place.
In a rare show of unanimity, everyone involved in the issue testified in support of the revised criteria based on the March 5th negotiation. This testimony included those who had argued for this and other changes as well as people who had written the original language restricting hands-on instruction. The Board then unanimously approved the revised criteria.
The California Science Teachers Association, under the leadership of Ms. Christine Bertrand, played a major role in helping to keep the dialogue focused on key issues and enabling this consensus to be reached. Input and testimony to the Board came from many sources including teachers, industry, higher education, legislators, and K-12 education associations. The CEOs of Bechtel, Intel, Pixar, Genentech, Lucasfilm, and Adobe Systems, and the President of the University of California, leaders in the CSU system, and the Chancellors of each of the UC campuses all advocated changing the language with respect to hands-on instruction.
It should be noted that the proposed and approved criteria include many other provisions. In effect, many of these mandate that publishers focus on the California Science Standards. Extraneous lessons or topics must compose no more than 10 percent of the science instructional time. Each hands-on investigations must cover one or more of the science standards in that grade level. Many educators who are familiar with the current materials consider these to be very welcome requirements in that current materials frequently have significant amounts of extraneous content, and the hands-on activities often do not address the standards content.
We will post a link to the new criteria as soon as they are made available for web distribution. In the meantime, here is some of the wording on the requirements that relate to hands-on instruction.
"Students should have the opportunity to learn science by direct instruction, by reading textbooks and supplemental material, by solving standards-based problems, and by doing lab investigations and experiments."
Publishers must provide evidence "demonstrating that the California Science Standards can be comprehensively taught from the submitted materials with hands-on activities composing at least 20 to 25 percent of the science instructional program (as specified in the California Science Framework). Hands-on activities must be cohesive, connected and build on each other to lead students to a comrehensive understanding of the California Science Content Standards."
Reprinted from an EdGateway Listserve update, posted by the California Science Education Advisory Committee (CSEAC).
The adoption criteria that were approved by the State Board on March 10th,
2004 are now posted on the web. The document can be accessed at
http://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/sc/cf/documents/scicriteria04.pdf
NOTE: the California Department of Education recently completely revised their website, and many links are no longer to be found. I'm trying to get them all updated, but can't find any trace of some formerly useful pages - thanks for your patience. - AEOE Webmaster