Science Education in California 2012

Although California is the home of worldwide technological innovation with Silicon Valley companies like Apple, Intel, and Adobe, the public school system is not investing time, money or teacher training to teach science. 

Needs to change school culture, scheduling time, planning time, using data including student data, designs for professional learning, facilitating collaborative professional learning teams, evaluating learning, both formative and summative assessment, roles of central office administrators, the principal and the coaches for effective learning.  The Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning at WestEd the Lawrence Hall of Science at UC Berkeley, and SRI International reported that 10% of elementary students received regular hands-on science, and only one third of elementary teachers felt they were prepared to teach science.  85% of these teachers also reported they’ve had no professional development in the last three years.  The report, Untapped Potential, released in March 2012, states that:

The research shows that:

• nearly 40 percent of teachers view students' lack of interest as a major or moderate challenge to science instruction.
• nearly half (47%) of principals report students' lack of preparation as a major or moderate challenge.
• nearly one-quarter of middle school teachers may not have an adequate background or preparation for teaching the subject.
• nearly 60 percent of surveyed teachers identified insufficient professional development as a barrier to high-quality science instruction.
• just 14 percent of middle school teachers provide a pattern of classroom practices that support regular engagement of students in the practices of science.

California is due to implement the new Common Core State Standards in 2014-15.  These were developed by an initiative of the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers.  California is one of the 45 adopting states of these standards representing a significant shift in teaching and learning of science literacy.  A series of focus groups representing six subgroups of teachers, elementary (one group consisted of teachers with more than 10 years of experience, and another consisted of teachers with less than 10 years of experience¹); middle and high school mathematics; middle and high school science; middle and high school history/social studies; and middle and high school English language arts, was commissioned by WestEd's Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning in October 2011.  The key finding reported was that teachers did not feel prepared for the transition.  The Center recommended:

that districts and schools take immediate action on the following:

• Educate teachers about the standards: how they were developed and teachers' role in that process; the goals and structure of the standards; and the expectations for how the standards will influence teachers' practice. Teachers must be assured that the CCSS will replace existing standards and that they will not be required to teach to both sets of standards simultaneously.
• Engage representative teachers in planning how the district will implement the new standards. Educate all teachers about the implementation process, including how it was planned (especially, teacher involvement), the implementation role of the individual teacher, and timelines.
• Create a climate in which it is acceptable for teachers to begin transitioning to the new standards without fear of being punished under current accountability measures. Districts will need to allay teachers' concerns that they may have to prepare students for the California Standards Tests at the same time they begin teaching to the CCSS.
• Provide intensive, ongoing professional development about the differences between current standards and the CCSS regarding content and pedagogy. Districts must explicitly unpack the two sets of standards, illuminating the gap between them and articulating the expectations under the new standards. If there is to be a successful transition to the new standards, teachers must have appropriate materials and resources, whether they are provided by the district or whether, with the district's blessing, they are identified or developed by the teachers themselves.
• Explain how new assessments will be linked to the CCSS standards. There is a great deal of apprehension among teachers about how the changes in standards will be assessed adequately, particularly how critical thinking skills can be assessed in a standardized test. As soon as they are made available, provide transparency about what the tests are going to look like so that teachers can understand how each individual standard is represented in the tests. In addition, once decisions about the accountability system have been made, explain the role of the tests within that system (e.g., the weighting of subject areas, grade levels tested, other factors beyond tests that may be included). (CenterView: Willing but Not Yet Ready: A glimpse of California teachers’ preparedness for the Common Core State Standards
  – Release Date: Feb 22, 2012)

Results on NAEP science tests show California trails the nation in students’ scientific literacy. At the same time, public opinion research finds that Californians strongly support increased time and resources devoted to science education. ªCenterView: Scientific Literacy: The Missing Ingredient
– Release Date: Feb 04, 2011)

Teacher preparation programs will need to help future teachers envision and enact new

strategies to foster deeper learning. (P21Webinar, Developing Transferable Knowledge and skills, 2012)

ATC21S recognizes that assessment is only one piece of the holistic education-transformation approach. To make lasting change, educational systems need to develop new curricula and provide teachers with professional development to teach 21st century skills effectively in an information and communications technology-rich environment.  http://atc21s.org/index.php/about/faqs/

References

•California teachers lack the resources and time to teach science, LA Times, October 31, 2011

•Math and Science Teacher Initiative, CSU
•Teach California
•The Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning at WestEd

•http://www.cftl.org/index_sci.php

•Untapped Potential: The status of Middle School Science Education in California, March 22, 2012, accessed October 3, 2012 from http://www.cftl.org/Whats__New.htm.

•CenterView: Willing but Not Yet Ready: A glimpse of California teachers’ preparedness for the Common Core State Standards
– Release Date: Feb 22, 2012 accessed October 5, 2012 from http://www.cftl.org/CenterView.htm.

•CenterView: Scientific Literacy: The Missing Ingredient
– Release Date: Feb 04, 2011accessed October 7, 2012 from http://www.cftl.org/CenterView.htm.

• http://atc21s.org/index.php/about/  ATCS21S Research Project

• P21Webinar, Developing Transferable Knowledge and skills, 2012  http://www.youtube.com/user/ptumarkin?feature=watch

•Why is Science Important? Vimeo