Here and Back Again: A standard's tale

1. Here and Back Again: A standard's tale Tuesday January 17, 2006 Steven B. Case Ph.D. Center for Science Education University of Kansas Pedro, just listen to your heart. That’s what I do.

2. Education Reform Education reform sometimes appears to be the great American pastime. The decentralized nature of the U.S. education system means that education is a State level activity.

3. Scientific Inquiry: Finding Common Ground The new vision includes the "processes of science" and requires that students combine processes and scientific knowledge as they use scientific reasoning and critical thinking to develop their understanding of science.

4. Scientific Inquiry: Finding Common Ground Science as inquiry is basic to science education and a controlling principle in the ultimate organization and selection of students’ activities.

5. Scientific Inquiry: Finding Common Ground Students at all grade levels and in every domain of science should have the opportunity to use scientific inquiry and develop the ability to think and act in ways associated with inquiry, including asking questions, planning and conducting investigations, using appropriate tools and techniques to gather data, thinking critically and logically about relationships between evidence and explanations, constructing and analyzing alternative explanations, and communicating scientific arguments.

6. National Science Education Standards • Developed in 1996, there are seven national standards that describe what students should know, understand, and be able to do in the natural sciences. These standards are clustered for grade levels K-2, 3-4, 5-8, and 9-12. • 1. Science as Inquiry • Physical Science • Life Science • 4. Earth and Space Science • 5. Science and Technology • 6. Science in Personal and Environmental Perspectives • 7. History and Nature of Science

7. Kansas Standards Acting on a commitment to quality education, the Kansas State Board of Education began its improvement process in 1989 when it adopted its strategic directions aimed at providing the framework for quality instruction for Kansas school children. The strategic directions then became the launching pad for the Quality Performance Accreditation process.

8. Kansas Standards • The successful Quality Performance Accreditation program can be categorized into five basic components. They are: • A focus on the effective schools principles. • Emphasis on creating a learning community. • Staff training and retraining. • Emphasis on high academic performance. • Meet world class standards using integrated curricular instruction.

9. Meet world class standards using integrated curricular instruction. • "Standards" are a framework to help local districts establish their curriculum. Each major subject area taught in public schools (Mathematics, Social Studies, Science, etc.) has its own set of standards, determined by the State Board of Education. • State-wide assessment of these standards for schoolchildren, allow districts to measure how well schools are performing within this standards framework.

10. Kansas Science Content Standards • The science content standards provide a broad vision of scientifically literate citizens and establish as a goal that all students should achieve scientific literacy. • Curriculum and instruction are local decisions. • Standards are a foundation not a limit. Science Content Standands

11. How Kansas Curriculum Standards are developed – well usually.

12. The Science Standards Revision Committee • There are twenty-six members of the committee. • Attendance at meetings has been very good. • A committee member was added as a classroom expert on the earth sciences. Science Content Standands

13. Timeline and the Process • June 7, 2004 : Committee work began. • June 21 : Draft One Revisions • July 27: Draft One Revisions • August 30: Draft One Revisions • September 15: Draft One Revisions • October 1: Working Document posted on KSDE website. • October 28: Draft One complete November: Field Review • December 2: Committee review of all comments from the field. Science Content Standands

14. Timeline and the Process • December 14-15: KSBE receives Draft One • January: Public hearings • January 6, 2004 7:00-8:30 KCK • January 11, 2004 7:00-8:30 Topeka • January 20, 2004 7:00-8:30 Derby • January 25, 2004 7:00-8:30 Hays • January 27th Draft Two Revisions • February 10th : Draft two Revision. • February/March: External review • March : Draft Three Revisions • April/May: Draft Three to KSBE for approval Science Content Standands

15. Kansas Science Education Standards http://www.ksde.org/outcomes/science.html

16. STANDARD 1: SCIENCE AS INQUIRY Twelfth Grade As a result of their activities in grades 9-12, all students will develop the abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry and understandings about scientific inquiry. Benchmark 1: Students will demonstrate the abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry.

17. Classrooms Teachers cope with contradictory expectations signaled by administrators, school boards, community, and parents. Cuban (1986) states a few of these conflicting expectations as: • Socialize all children, yet nourish each child’s individual creativity. • Teach the best the past has to offer, but insure that each child possesses practical skills marketable in the community • Demand obedience to authority, but encourage individual children to think and question. • Cultivate cooperation, but prepare children to compete

18. Instructional Choices

19. A few questions and answers!

20. What is Evolution? Evolution is a broad, well-tested description of how Earth's present-day life forms arose from common ancestors reaching back to the simplest one-celled organisms almost four billion years ago. It helps explain both the similarities and the differences in the enormous number of living organisms we see around us.

21. Charles Darwin The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection Alfred Russel Wallace The Theory of Natural Selection

22. Is Evolution “just a theory’? In science, the word "theory" means much more. A scientific theory is a well-substantiated explanation of some aspect of the natural world, based on a body of facts that have been repeatedly confirmed through observation and experiment. Such fact-supported theories are not "guesses" but reliable accounts of the real world. The theory of biological evolution is more than "just a theory." It is as factual an explanation of the universe as the atomic theory of matter or the germ theory of disease. Our understanding of gravity is still a work in progress. But the phenomenon of gravity, like evolution, is an accepted fact.

23. Is there "evidence against" contemporary evolutionary theory? No. There are still many puzzles in biology about the particular pathways of the evolutionary process and how various species are related to one another. However, these puzzles neither invalidate nor challenge Darwin's basic theory of "descent with modification" nor the theory's present form that incorporates and is supported by the genetic sciences. Contemporary evolutionary theory provides the conceptual framework in which these puzzles can be addressed and points toward ways to solve them.

24. Is there "evidence against" contemporary evolutionary theory? No. There are still many puzzles in biology about the particular pathways of the evolutionary process and how various species are related to one another. However, these puzzles neither invalidate nor challenge Darwin's basic theory of "descent with modification" nor the theory's present form that incorporates and is supported by the genetic sciences. Contemporary evolutionary theory provides the conceptual framework in which these puzzles can be addressed and points toward ways to solve them.

25. What is intelligent design? "Intelligent design" consists of two hypothetical claims about the history of the universe and of life: first, that some structures or processes in nature are "irreducibly complex" and could not have originated through small changes over long periods of time; and second, that some structures or processes in nature are expressions of "complex specified information" that can only be the product of an intelligent agent.

26. Is intelligent design a scientific alternative to contemporary evolutionary theory? No. Intelligent design proponents may use the language of science, but they do not use its methodology. They have yet to propose meaningful tests for their claims, there are no reports of current research on these hypotheses at relevant scientific society meetings, and there is no body of research on these hypotheses published in relevant scientific journals. So, intelligent design has not been demonstrated to be a scientific theory. While living things are remarkably complex, scientists have shown that careful, systematic study of them can yield tremendous insights about their functions and origins (as it has in the past).

27. Aren't scientists really just afraid to debate proponents of intelligent design? No, scientists actually thrive on debate, but only according to the norms and standards of scientific investigation and discourse. Scientists are bound by existing facts while the opponents are not constrained by sticking to the verifiable evidence and data. Scientists see no point — and much danger — in pitting a scientific concept like evolution against a non-scientific article of religious faith like intelligent design. By agreeing to debate evolution, scientists would be offering proponents of intelligent design a veneer of scientific respectability that has not been earned in the rough-and-tumble of everyday science.

28. Doesn't fairness require that alternatives to contemporary evolutionary theory be taught in the public schools? No. This is not about fairness. Science requires adherence to standards of research conduct and process. Intelligent design has not met those standards and should not be taught in science classrooms. If anything, it is unfair for proponents of a non-scientific claim to try to force their views into science classrooms.

29. Why did AAAS boycott the recent Kansas State Board of Education hearings on evolution? The Kansas State Board of Education, which is dominated by intelligent design advocates, scheduled a series of hearings beginning May 5 on proposed revisions to state science standards. AAAS was invited to testify and "provide expert opinion regarding the mainstream scientific view of the nature of science." After much consideration, AAAS respectfully declined to participate, honoring a boycott called by the grassroots pro-science organization, Kansas Citizens for Science. We saw little purpose in a forum where evolution would be juxtaposed against "intelligent design," an unsubstantiated alternative that is a matter of religious faith, not facts. The State Board established a format which implied that scientific conclusions could be based simply on the weight of witnesses' opinions rather than on scientific evidence. We chose to support leaders of the Kansas science community, who promoted the boycott and described the hearings as rigged by proponents of intelligent design. In the end, with the exception of a Kansas civil rights attorney, who pointed out the farcical nature of the proceedings, only ID proponents testified.

30. Aren’t there more and more scientists questioning evolution? NCSESteve-o-meteras of 10/21/05 No. NCSE's "Project Steve" is a tongue-in-cheek parody of a long-standing creationist tradition of amassing lists of "scientists who doubt evolution" or "scientists who dissent from Darwinism." Creationists draw up these lists to convince the public that evolution is somehow being rejected by scientists, that it is a "theory in crisis." Most members of the public lack sufficient contact with the scientific community to know that this claim is totally unfounded. We did not wish to mislead the public into thinking that scientific issues are decided by who has the longer list of scientists! Project Steve mocks this practice with a bit of humor, and because "Steves" are only about 1% of scientists, it incidentally makes the point that tens of thousands of scientists support evolution, and it honors the late Stephen Jay Gould. NCSE welcomes Steve #649Steve T. Bright

31. Well OK, but just one!

32. OK, but this is really it!