Virginia: State and National Science Standards
Across the field of education, standards have become both a guideline for teacher lesson plans and a measuring device for students’ achievement. In recent years several subject-based standards have been put in place by national organizations of scientists, mathematicians, and other professionals. Simultaneously, states have been developing their own set of standards, many of which may or may not correspond with offerings such as the National Science Education Standards (NSES). One example we will focus on in this paper is the State of Virginia’s Standards of Learning (SOLs). As a result, the VA SOLs received a rather poor grade on a national scale, measured by the Thomas B. Ford Foundation in March 1998. Much of the criticism lies in the VA SOLs’ lack of broad ideas and theoretical structure.
Educators across the state have differing opinions concerning the VA Science Standards. Many educators have expressed disagreement over the value and the implementation of the SOLs. With regard to the VA Science SOLs, one elementary school teacher stated, "I don’t find the science SOLs controversial at all. I really enjoy teaching science and can find many ways to include the SOLs in all my academic areas." Not all teachers feel so positively about the standards. A Northern Virginia elementary principal expressed this viewpoint when he said, "Your feeling about the science SOLs will depend on your philosophical point of view about a fact vs. experiential science curriculum…Teachers who like open-ended, experiential-thinking based curriculum will not like them [VA SOLs], teachers who like sequential, fact-rich curriculum will."
One criticism of the VA SOLs points towards its lack of exploratory learning due to its fact-based nature. Many believe that the extensive content needed to be covered handicaps teachers in such a way that they are unable to teach anything else but the SOLs and therefore can not delve deeply into any one area of study. On the contrary, VA SOLs can be a valuable resource for lesson plans. Since all teachers on a certain grade level must hold their students responsible for the same information, they can easily share lessons and materials. This lends itself to collaborative teaching.
The NSES also have both positive and negative aspects. The National Science Education Standards appeal to those who appreciate an inquiry-based, constructivist approach. As stated in Catherine Kelly’s article, Reaching to the Standards (2000), "The Standards [NSES] have also encouraged constructivism and rallied support for a developmental curriculum in which students are more process oriented than product oriented.
Virginia’s Standards of Learning has come under much criticism over the past couple of years, and I for one think it deserves to be criticized. Each year student in every school district across America have to take two or more test such as, the (LPT) Literacy Passport Test, the Stanford-9 exam or the (SOL) Standards of Learning, depending on the grade level. In two out of these three tests, students are required to pass in order to graduate, and judging by last years test scores, most students future would be endangered if they are unable to bring there score up. This has led to the question, “are we testing our students too much”? This question was bought up at a General Assembly meeting in March of 2000, the Virginia Board of Education responded by saying they would move the Stanford-9 exam from the spring to the fall, so it would not interfere with the spring SOL tests. But this still is not enough for me, because all of these tests are designed to do one thing, and that is to evaluate a student’s comprehensive knowledge of a certain subject. So what I don’t get is, why do a student have to take two or more test a year just to evaluate his understanding of a certain subject.
“ No taxation without representation!” a group of colonists shouted as they roamed the streets surrounded by armed, red-coated British soldiers. Around the 1760’s, turmoil between the 13 colonies and Britain began. Britain no longer gave them their rights, respected the amount of time between taxations, or gave them a say in any law that applied to them. Although there are reasonable things that Britain did, American colonists were justified in waging war and breaking away. If Britain was going to bombard them with taxation and laws in the span of a few short years or not present them with a representative in Parliament, then the colonists had every right to become their own self governing country.
The Virginia Board of Education, according to fairtest.org, also believes that SOL's set reasonable targets for essential knowledge and skills all teachers must teach and students must learn.
The United States of America has placed low on the educational ladder throughout the years. The cause of such a low ranking is due to such heavy emphasis on standardized testing and not individual student achievement. Although the United States uses standardized testing as a crutch, it is not an effective measure of a student’s ability, a teacher’s competency, or a school’s proficiency.
The American Revolution was marked by the colonies’ independence from Britain. This separation pronounced a new age marked by a decisive political change in the colonies because of the implementation of the Enlightenment ideals and the continuation of English liberties. However, the American Revolution was considered a conservative movement because it “originated from an effort to preserve the existing liberties of the colonies rather than create new ones” (Strayer, 782). Furthermore, the revolution occurred not on the issue of taxation, but on the issue of representation. The colonists believed autonomy was part of their birthright and as Englishmen along with their economic rights and their “natural rights to life, liberty, and property” (Kramnick, Lockean Liberalism). These two sentiments can be seen in their famous slogan “No taxation without representation”. By challenging their economic interests, their established traditions of local autonomy, and their identity as true Englishmen, the colonists were truly infuriated. Thus the American Revolution didn’t grow out of the social tensions within the colonies but rather from an unexpected effort by the British government to tighten its control over the colonies and ex...
Michael, S.et al. (2008). Prospects for improving K-12 science education from the federal level. Journal of Education 69(9): 677-683.
Standardized tests, such as the SAT and the SOL, have been implemented for many years now for individuals in grade school to take. The SOL’s, or Standards of Learning tests, are Virginia’s version of standardized tests that students are required to take in order to pass a class, evaluating their knowledge on a specific subject. SOL’s are mandatory for students to take as soon as they reach third grade. Additionally, the SAT is a test taken in the final years of high school that colleges look at when comparing students for post-secondary school. People concerned with student’s education can come to the common consensus that education is important and there should be some way to compare a student’s achievements to one another. However, the process
... Standards (AIMS). Arizona Department of Education. Retrieved October 24, 2002 from the World Wide Web:
By having a standardized curriculum schools are not challenging students. They are creating students that do not challenge what they are learning. Holt (2013) thought that standardized curriculum destroyed student’s freedom of thought, right to question, and the freedom to spread ideas. Every student is the same in a way. Every student is tested the same. The problem is that every student is not the same and every studen...
In the 1980’s a report called “A Nation At Risk” stated that American children had fallen behind in such subjects as math and science. Thus came the advent of education’s increased focus on literacy and numeracy, accountability and academic standards. These high standards, according to Dumas (2000), are the most significant trend in schools today.
As teachers we plan our lessons and think to ourselves, "my students are going to love this lesson and will be able to understand what I am teaching", but sometimes that isn 't the case. You may plan a lesson in hopes that your students understand but it doesn 't go as planned. Every student learns differently and thinks differently and because of this we, as teachers must learn to differentiate our lessons. This may require us to change the way we deliver our lesson, change the activities for our lessons or even change the wording of our material so students understand. In this paper, I will be differentiating a lesson plan based on student readiness, student interest and student learning profile for content, process, and product.
By incorporating NOS in science textbooks, not only we will be addressing the problem suggested by Sutton (1998), but, also, as teachers, we will be reinforcing scientific expertise needed in to develop active citizens while attaining two roles in scientific understandings that are “knowing how” science was established and “knowing that” which is constituted of facts and scientific knowledge (Bellous &Siegel, 1991). Finally, Sutton’s chapter provides a concise framework for teachers and research scholars to view science teaching and scientific knowledge from a different perspective. Such that the science content and teaching should be viewed from the scientists’ perspective to the extent that collaboration between scientific community is needed to reach such
The understandings I have gained from this course have completely revamped my way of teaching. I have been using the unit plan and curriculum map I created in this course for the past two years, and my students enjoy it more and more each year. Learning the importance of using big ideas and essential questions in the classroom have made me a better educator and has assisted my students in learning content and skills that they can transfer to all academic areas and into their everyday lives. I now use big idea and essential questions in every ...
Proponents claim that learners’ academic achievement can be significantly improved with the effectiveness of use of collaborative learning. The active exchange of ideas within small groups increases interest among learners and also promotes critical thinking and deeper levels of understanding of concepts (Benware & Deci, 1984). According to Johnson & Johnson (1986), there is convincing evidence that collaborative teams achieve high level of thoughts and retain information longer than learners who work as individuals. The shared learning gives learners an opportunity to engage in discussion, take responsibility for their own learning, and thus become critical thinkers (Totten, Sills, & Russ, 1991).
As a teacher, is very important to use a wide range of learning and teaching resources, from books or other printed materials so, that students are encouraged to explore issues of interest,