Florida Citizens for Science

Florida’s public school science standards are not in need of a tweak or pretty makeover. They need to be overhauled. The Thomas B. Fordham Institute gave Florida an ugly ol’ F for its science standards. In part, the review says:

Life sciences and evolution are given shorter shrift than any of the others. The E-word is sedulously avoided. Here, there are some loose, if not incorrect, generalities offered as standards: “… knows that the fossil record provides evidence that changes in the kinds of plants and animals in the environment have been occurring over time.” There is little in the way of useful guidance for teachers or others toward appropriate content in the biological sciences and especially in the history of life and the basic mechanisms of change.

And that’s just one portion. Read the report for more bad news if you haven’t read it all yet.

So, what’s the big deal? Who cares about this little ol’ science standards thing? Fluff up the words a bit and it will look like new, right?

No. Absolutely not! Go to this New York Times article, print it out and make copies. Send it to everyone in the state and rub their noses in it. Make sure everyone knows just how important this issue really is!

The article starts off relating how difficult a veteran teacher named Pat New had it when evolution was mentioned in the classroom, which happened to be all the time.

She isn’t sure how many questioned her teaching of evolution — perhaps a dozen parents, teachers and administrators and several students in her seventh-grade life science class. They sent e-mail messages and letters, stopped her in the hall, called board members, demanded meetings, requested copies of the PBS videos that she showed in class.

…

On April 25, 2005, during a meeting about parent complaints with her principal, Rick Conner, she recalled: “He took a Bible off the bookshelf behind him and said, ‘Patty I believe in everything in this book, do you?’ I told him, ‘I really feel uncomfortable about your asking that question.’ He wouldn’t let it go.’ ” The next day, she said, in the lunchroom, “he reached across the table, took my hand and said: ‘I accept evolution in most things but if they ever say God wasn’t involved I couldn’t accept that. I want you to say that, Pat.’ ”

Asked to comment during an interview here, Mr. Conner would say only, “I don’t want to talk about it.”

Four days after her encounter with the principal, Ms. New was summoned to a meeting with the superintendent, Dewey Moye, as well as the principal and two parents upset about her teaching evolution. “We have to let parents ask questions,” Mr. Moye told her. “It’s a public school. In a democracy people can ask questions.”

Ms. New said the parents, “badgered, got loud and sarcastic and there was no support from administrators.”

But Ms. New finally found a way to deflect the distracting, demoralizing assault on her classroom instruction: cite the state standards.

“It takes a lot to stand up and be willing to have people angry at you,” she said. But Ms. New did. She repeatedly urged her supervisors to read Georgia’s science standards, particularly S7L5, which calls for teaching evolution.

On May 5, 2005, she filled out a complaint to initiate a grievance under state law, writing that she was being “threatened and harassed” though “I am following approved curriculum.”

…

And parents’ rights? “I explained to parents that we’re following the state standards,” Mr. Moye said. “I said, ‘You can believe what you want, but we have to teach the standards.’ If they’re upset, they can take it up on the state level.”

…

Ms. New said that from then on, including the entire 2005-06 school year, she had no problem teaching evolution. “What saved me, was I didn’t have to argue evolution with these people. All I had to say was, ‘I’m following state standards.’ “

Can Florida teachers fall back on the standards?

No.

School Board Considers Science Curriculum Overhaul For Middle and High Schools:

Becky Braaten, curriculum coordinator of secondary science, submitted a proposal calling for an overhaul of the science curriculum for grades 6 through 12 at the school board’s work session on Tuesday.

…

Middle School Proposals

The Curriculum Development and Material Selection (CDMS) committee recommended that all middle schools offer regular and advanced tracks for science.

On both tracks, sixth grade will cover Earth and space science with an overview of scientific theory, metrics, and lab safety and reports in the first nine weeks; seventh grade will cover life science; and eighth grade will cover physical science.

The High School CDMS committee recommended that honors physical science should be removed from the high school curriculum, so it would no longer count for high school credit.

…

High School Proposals

The CDMS committee strongly recommends that the high school graduation requirement be changed to four credits, or three with lab experience.

A regular track science education would include biology, Earth and space science, and physical science, which would require the completion of Algebra I or that the student was in 11th grade.

On the college-bound track, students would take honors biology and honors Earth and space science in ninth grade. In the 10th and 11th grades, students would take either regular or honors chemistry and physics.

Poor performance on the college-bound track would move the student to the regular track.

Each track of science courses would be required to be taken before the second semester of 11th grade.

Elective sciences above and beyond these courses would be permissible.

This all looks innocent enough, but anyone in Polk County want to keep an eye on this?

Updated science curriculum delayed until 2008

Florida’s science curriculum will not be updated until 2008 — more than a year later than expected.

The delay ensures that a controversial debate over evolution will come after Gov. Jeb Bush leaves office and his successor is firmly in place.

The Miami Herald reported last month that the update was likely to be delayed far beyond its originally scheduled timeframe this fall. A memo released this morning confirmed that the review will begin in June 2007 and should be finished in February 2008.

Until that review is completed, Education Commissioner John Winn has said he will not take a position on how Florida’s public schools should teach the origins of man.

Other states are embroiled in tense debates about how schools should handle the theory of evolution — widely accepted by mainstream science — and the religiously-tinged theory of intelligent design.

…

The two leading Democratic candidates to replace Bush, U.S. Rep. Jim Davis and state Sen. Rod Smith, have opposed intelligent design in public school science classes.

Florida Attorney General Charlie Crist, running on the Republican side, agreed, but said it could be taught in an elective class. Another GOP candidate, state Chief Financial Officer Tom Gallagher, said he would not oppose having it taught in science class.

Official science course descriptions will not be revised to reflect the updated standards until August 2008, and new textbooks will not be used until the 2010-2011 school year.

The science portion of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test will have moderate changes to reflect the new standards in 2010, but more dramatic changes to the exam will not come until 2012 and 2013.

I did some quick searches but couldn’t find the referenced memo on the Internet. Anyone know where it might be?

State: Schools below grade level in science

Florida schools can check the “needs improvement” box when it comes to science education, now that state educators have decided that average FCAT science scores fall below grade-level performance.

That determination is likely to set off a new push to improve science education across Florida, teachers and principals say.

…

Until now, scores on FCAT science have been gathered only for information. Next year, however, they will start counting toward the A-to-F letter grades the state awards public schools each year. If schools do not raise their science scores, some could see their school grades fall.

…

“This places the focus again on the need for quality science instruction,” said Bonnie Mizell, science specialist for Orange County schools. “In recent years past, science has taken a back seat to reading and mathematics,” she said. “I’m very happy to see science back on the front burner.”

…

The biggest issue for districts working to improve science instruction is finding qualified science teachers, particularly for upper-level high-school courses, Colwell and other local educators say.

“My fear is that we, in the future, could run out of certified teachers in those fields before we could run out of students interested and prepared to take those courses,” he said.

…

The Department of Education plans to present its score recommendations to the state Board of Education on Tuesday. Later this year, the board is expected to adopt the achievement levels for the science test and decide how to work science scores into the complicated school-grade calculation system.

Victor Hatfield, an Orange teacher who serves on the board of the Florida Association of Science Teachers, was on a state committee that helped devise the recommended achievement levels.

He is pleased with the increased attention for his field and thinks local schools are ready to teach to the level the state is demanding.

“It’s up to the kids now,” said Hatfield, who teaches at Union Park Middle School.

My earlier post Trying to figure things out featured an e-mail I sent asking for help in understanding the standards revision process. So far it has gone unanswered by the people I sent it to. I’ll wait a few more days next week and then maybe I’ll have to find time to rack up the phone bill if there is still no response.

Joe Wolf has helped me out, though. He apparently was able to get in contact with Ms. Sanders to gather more information. Unfortunately, it’s still much too vague. I mean, come on … isn’t the process already running for some other subjects?

Joe says:

Effectively the process seems to be:

1) Collect input. One method is the internet input process.
2) The DOE staff will compile all suggestions and write a draft. They say they will consult professional organizations.
3) Re-write process.
4) State Board decides.

And let’s not forget the Initial analysis post courtesy of Mr. Wolf again. It’s a starting point. But we need to get the specifics! Help!

On a side note: Fl Citizens for Science is still new and not yet organized. We expect to elect our first officers this month or the next at the latest. From there we then make ourselves official with bylaws and such. Then it’s off to the races as goals are set. We have a great core group of folks anxious to launch this ship, so look for more activity out of the newly official group soon. Get in on the ground floor, folks. Joining doesn’t cost you anything but some time and energy well spent.

I and a couple of other people have already been tossing around the Florida Citizens for Science moniker in our correspondence.

For instance, in Pinellas County there is the active issue of choosing new biology texts. One of the more irresponsible news outlets in that area went overboard on the drama of ID possibly being in the science books. One of our members took the initiative to contact the county’s Science Coordinator and got the straight scoop. There were meetings this past week between a teacher committee and the book publishers. Most publishers, if not all, apparently said they would remove ID-related mentions from their textbooks if so requested. That’s about all there is to the story. The overly-dramatic news outlet decided to play up the potential ID/evolution conflict and make it sound much scarier than it actually is. Take a wild guess at what network the station is affiliated with.

Some other great input from another member is:
– All School Boards have a science coordinator/ director. Contact that person to offer your advice and assistance.
– Give them statements from the NSTA and the NABT, along with other literature clarifying their legal position.
– We should also work with them to develop or publicize science workshops for both students and teachers.

Things are moving along, folks. Don’t be afraid to pitch in. This a big state and we could use ideas, input and local representatives from Fl Citizens for Science throughout the state.

I’ve taken on a few projects for myself. The first is to make sense of the state standards review. I can’t for the life of me find anything that outlines how the process works and who is involved. I may just not be looking under the right rocks, so I sent an e-mail to two addresses that I thought might prompt a response:

1) SSSRevision@fldoe.org
2) Science Specialist, Sally Sanders, K-12 Science Program Specialist, Sally.Sanders@fldoe.org

To Whom It May Concern:

This e-mail is to request materials pertaining to the Sunshine State Standards review. I have visited the appropriate web page at http://www.firn.edu/doe/curric/index.html and also spent the better part of a day exploring the general Florida Department of Education web site. However, I haven’t found any detailed description of the review process. The provided Q&A document was wholly inadequate and actually raised many more questions than it answered. I’ve gone through a number of the Board of Education meeting notes and I noticed that many agenda items have presentation materials associated with them. I’m wondering if the review process has such a document or other computer file on it that I just haven’t found yet.

I would like to know what has happened so far; I believe some subjects have already been reviewed or are currently under review. I know the science standards review has been postponed. I would like to know much more about the review process as a whole and about the upcoming science review. In the Q&A it says: “… address specific concerns related to rigor, specificity, vertical alignment, developmental appropriateness and number of benchmarks.” Whereas some of that seems simple, I have no idea what “rigor,” “specificity,” or “vertical alignment” specifically mean. Under the question who will be drafting the revisions it says: “FLDOE staff, standards-writing organizations, small writing teams representing all content areas.” Who exactly on the FLDOE staff is participating? What standards-writing organizations? How are people selected to be on the small writing teams?

What has been the timeline so far as related to standards currently under review? What is the timeline for subjects yet to be reviewed?

I am confident that there are existing documents that answer most, if not all of my questions. I just need to be pointed in the right direction. Your assitance is sincerely appreciated.

Thank you,
Brandon Haught
Florida Citizens for Science

If any of you folks out there have this process figured out, would you be so kind as to educate me? I’ll make sure to report here what response(s) I get.

Governor Bush issued a press release yesterday, supposedly clarifying his stance on the science standards. Um, yeah … clear as mud, buddy.

FRIDAY , DECEMBER 30, 2005
Contact:
RUSSELL SCHWEISS
(850) 488-5394

TALLAHASSEE - “A national debate is ensuing about whether evolution or intelligent design should be taught in science classes. Some confusion about my position on this issue has emerged in recent weeks.

“I am a practicing Catholic and my own personal belief is God created man and all life on earth. However, I do not believe an individual’s personal beliefs should be the basis for determining Florida’s Sunshine State Standards.

“The Sunshine State Standards, approved by the State Board of Education nearly a decade ago, establish the expectations for student achievement in our state - essentially what our students need to know when they complete each grade. The framework provides flexibility to school districts and teachers in designing curriculum, including what specific topics should be taught in each class.

“Within the next three years, the Department of Education will begin an open process to revise Florida’s science standards. These standards need to be made more rigorous to ensure our children will have the knowledge necessary to successfully compete in an increasingly global marketplace. As Florida continues to raise the bar for education, I am confident our educators will rise to the challenge and establish standards that improve students’ learning of science.

“Perhaps more importantly, we should encourage the vigorous discussion of varying viewpoints in our classrooms. A healthy debate of issues challenges our students’ minds.”

I bolded the two possibly conflicting views he stated. Personal beliefs don’t belong in the standards, good. Encourage varying viewpoints, not so good if you are advocating inserting non-science in a science classroom. By using standard political weasel language, he managed to avoid coming right out and saying that ID is fine in the science classroom while still leaving the door cracked open.

Some other nuggets of information below the fold …
(more…)

I had posted about a meeting hosted by the Center for Inquiry branch in Tampa, Florida. Curtis Wolf was kind enough to provide a summary of what happened. Here are some highlights:

20 people met at 4 PM on December 21st at the CFI Florida office.

I gave a short Power Point presentation on the issues that we are facing concerning science educational standards in this state. Basically, the science standards are coming up for review within a year or two. There are creationist storm clouds over the horizon. Science standards were given a grade of ‘F’ by the Thomas B Fordham Foundation. We need to organize and educate ourselves so that we can improve the state education standards when they are made available for comment.

We agreed that the name of the group should remain Florida Science Standards Committee.

We agreed that the purpose of the committee is to improve science educational standards for Florida schools. Even though some in the group had interest in other aspects of science education, it was the consensus that the science standards were a good place to start. Improving the science standards will set the bar high for the educational system as a whole. The educational system will have to improve itself in order to teach the standards correctly. I am hoping that this group will stay together and look at other aspects of science education once we have finished with the standards. However, the improvement of the Florida science standards is a good start and more than enough work in and of itself for now.

It became clear from the discussion throughout the meeting that we need to become familiar with the current science standards in Florida and any alternatives to them. When we are familiar with all of this, we will have a good idea of how much work that we have ahead of us. We may very well decide that the standards need very few changes. I doubt this, but we will not know this until we become more familiar with the science standards.

…

We also created three lines of inquiry concerning the issues relevant to this committee. I have agreed to inquire about the state education department process of formulating science standards. Jeanette has agreed to look at the Thomas B Fordham Foundation report and determine what criticisms of the Florida science standards are in the report. Susan Gow has agreed to determine whether any other groups are interested in improving the science standards.

Finally, we agreed to meet again on March 24th at 4 PM at the CFI Florida office. This meeting will precede the CFI Florida conference.

An interesting take on science and evolution by our governor: Bush: Science comes before intelligent design

Questioned about the national debate over ”intelligent design,” Gov. Jeb Bush last week said he’s more interested in seeing some evolution of the science standards that Florida public school students must meet.

He wants those standards to become more rigorous — and raising the standards should take priority over discussing whether intelligent design has a place in the public schools’ curriculum, he said.

So far, so good. But then there’s this:

The Watchdog Report asked a follow-up question: Does the governor believe in Darwin’s theory of evolution?

Bush said: “Yeah, but I don’t think it should actually be part of the curriculum, to be honest with you. And people have different points of view and they can be discussed at school, but it does not need to be in the curriculum.”

First, the question is all wrong. It should be “do you understand evolution” rather than “do you believe in it.” I hate how “belief” is being mixed into areas of science where it doesn’t belong. This whole “belief” paradigm was successfully implanted by the ID nuts, and now we’re suffering the consequences. Reporters and politicians don’t know enough about the facts to ask an intelligent question or answer reasonably.

Secondly, it’s obvious Bush doesn’t understand evolution if he wants to strengthen science standards without including it. So doggone frustrating!

Florida Citizens for Science member Mr. Wolf made the following analysis. Please use the comments with this post to tell us your thoughts on this initial analysis. It’s not too early to get started on a game plan.

Subject: State Standards process

I have been reviewing the process for changing the state science standards. Here are my conclusions:

1. FLDOE says the revisions will be slight. However, “The extent of the revisions will depend on the findings of the analyses of the standards”. Who knows what that means, but we should assume the worst.
2. The standards are available on the Internet.
3. There is a State Standards Revision Stakeholder Input System available on the Internet.
4. The revisions will be done by “FLDOE staff, standards-writing organizations, small writing teams representing all content areas”.
5. After the revisions are made I am not sure what happens, but I assume that they will go to the State Board of Education.

There is a bio of each of the members of the Board. I again assume they make the final decision. Looking over the bios of the State Board, I do not see any obvious creationists. No obvious deeply religiously conservative people that I can see. Does anyone know anything about these people? Who will be an obvious ID supporter?

I think the weak point in the system where ID could enter the system is in the FLDOE staff. It seems to me that is where pressure could be applied. I know nothing about these staff people. Does anyone? Can we help them get the standards right? The formal process is important but so is the writing process.

What we can do:
1. We can make a lot of suggestions on what the standards should say. If they decide to make extensive changes, let’s get ours in early and often. An analysis of state standards for many, many states can be found: here and here. California, Massachusetts, and South Carolina are mentioned as excellent. We can base our changes on those standards. Let’s go with really good standards with evolution prominent. Would someone like to analyze how this can be done and make a blueprint?
2. We need to get some input into the writing process. If there is an ID proponent in the FLDOE we will need some way to counter that influence. The obvious way is to know the writers of the standards. How can we do this? Does anyone have any experience with these people? Know any of them?

Lots of work to do in preparation for the actual revision process.

Carl Zimmer has some excellent food for thought at his blog post Florida, Where The Living Is Contradictory
(more…)