In new standards, ‘Science is a verb’
Duncan Robb, chief policy adviser to state schools Superintendent Sherri Ybarra, presented the new proposed science standards to the House Education Committee at the start of this morning’s hearing. In the new standards, he said, “Science is a verb – this is about what kids can do.”
Last year, he noted, the Legislature approved all but five of the standards. “As a result, these standards have been a temporary rule for two years and have been used in our schools,” Robb told the committee. “They have to be approved permanently this year, or we essentially hit the reset button, move back.” That would move Idaho back to outdated standards from more than a decade ago.
“The Legislature asked we re-examine those five standards and propose additional language this year,” Robb said. “This year, we held six face-to-face meetings around the state, took in-person feedback, as well as using an online platform to gather comments that way. We received over 1,000 comments total.” All but five, he said, were in favor of the direction the state was taking with the new standards.
Summarizing the changes in the five sections, Robb said, “The effort was to move away from language that would draw students to a conclusion, and toward language that would allow students to draw conclusions for themselves.”
At the request of the committee, Robb then had Scott Cook, director of academics for the state Department of Education, go through each of the changes, which Cook said included things like emphasizing “the idea that human action can help mitigate those impacts,” and that “models project, they don’t predict.”
In one line, for example, the standards shifted from saying that “human activities have altered the biosphere, sometimes damaging” habitats and leading to extinction of species, to, “Human activities can have consequences negative and positive on the biosphere, sometimes altering” habitats and causing leading to extinction of species.
“So what we’ve done is be cognizant of the request from the committee to try to balance potential ways of mitigating, and considering both positive and negative consequences of impacts, whether they are human or naturally caused.”
