The District is providing its schools with the best standards for science education in the nation, according to an independent report. It may seem counterintuitive to those familiar with D.C. Public Schools — less than half of students demonstrate science proficiency on standardized tests — but the report’s key finding is that the District has the best blueprint for what a science education should look like. The city just has to figure out the rest of the puzzle: implementation, curriculum and teaching practices, among others.
The Thomas B. Fordham Institute’s “The State of State Science Standards” gave Washington a perfect 10 for its standards and one of two “A” grades in the country, alongside California.
Maryland and Virginia, whose students outperform the District’s, received a B and A-, respectively.
“The District’s standards really were best in class,” said Kathleen Porter-Magee, senior director of the Thomas Fordham Institute’s High Quality Standards Program. “Obviously writing great standards is maybe a tenth of the battle. But it is the first and most important step.”
The report details the District’s “clear” and “rigorous” standards that cover all K-12 content areas at an appropriate pace through grade levels. For instance, the District encourages young students to ask questions like “How do you know?” and to brainstorm new reasons for believing in theories, other than simply being told the ideas are true.
“Though not explicitly tied to content, if taken seriously, these standards could turn D.C. schools into a veritable wellspring of scientific and analytical thinkers!” the report reads.
The question is whether these standards are “taken seriously” in the absence of such a wellspring. Less than 40 percent of fifth- and eighth-graders in the District’s public schools, including charter schools, scored “proficient” or “advanced” on the D.C. Comprehensive Assessment System in 2011. About 45 percent of 10th-graders passed muster on the biology test.
Tamara Reavis, director of assessment and accountability in the Office of the State Superintendent of Education, said she believes science has received less attention because the District is accountable only for math and reading performance under the federal No Child Left Behind legislation.
