NEW YORK — The College Board has developed Science College Board Standards for College Success, which identify the discipline-specific content knowledge and scientific practices that college faculty expect students to possess by the time they enter college. These unique standards build on the research from the National Research Council’s Taking Science to School by focusing on science practices and the development of clear and measurable performance expectations.
The standards are available online so that states, school districts, schools and teachers will have free access to the science standards as they develop and supplement their own curricula. These models can provide all students with the rigorous education that will prepare them for success in college, opportunity in the workplace and effective participation in civic life.
College Board President Gaston Caperton said, “With the increasing demands of a global community, it is clear that students must be better prepared to understand the world around them and to be successful in science and technology careers. The College Board Standards for College Success were created to close the gap between secondary school requirements and college-level expectations in the hope that more students will be ready for the academic rigors of college, and fewer students will need remedial help once they are in college.”
The Science College Board Standards for College Success outline a progression of critical thinking skills from sixth to 12th grade. The standards focus primarily on the development of the knowledge, skills and practices that are required to understand the overarching principles and core ideas that have explanatory power within and across science disciplines — the “big ideas” of science. Students’ level of understanding is achieved by focusing on specific performance expectations that describe the ways students use and build their science understanding to accomplish a goal or task, and in this way, the framework also serves as a set of performance standards.
The Science College Board Standards for College Success also include a distinctive set of science practices in the life sciences, chemistry, physics and earth science that focus on developing the competencies necessary for engaging in scientific discourse and constructing evidence-based explanations and predictions. This level of specificity provides sufficient guidance for both curriculum supervisors and teachers to design curriculum, instruction and assessments in middle and high school that prepare students for introductory college-level science courses or their AP® equivalent.
Bruce Alberts, professor in the department of biochemistry and biophysics at the University of California, San Francisco and former president of the National Academy of Sciences said, “The reformulation of the Science [College Board] Standards for College Success just released by the College Board represents a critical step in the movement to propel science education to a higher level — away from a current obsession with science facts and the memorization of terms. The new science standards stress an understanding of the key features of science and experiences with science processes, and they include important ‘boundary’ statements that should help to free teachers from the ‘mile wide, inch deep’ coverage demanded by many of our current state and national exams. They and the Advanced Placement courses in science set important standards for science education in the United States.”
To guide the standards development process, the College Board convened national committees of middle school and high school teachers, college faculty, subject-matter experts, assessment specialists, teacher education faculty and curriculum experts who had experience in developing content standards for states and national professional organizations. A list of the Science Standards Advisory Committee is on pages xx–xxi of the Science College Board Standards for College Success, available at the link below.
The science standards join standards in English language arts, and mathematics and statistics. The standards provide a clear framework for teachers, students, administrators and parents to identify the critical thinking skills that middle school and high school students should develop to be successful in college courses.
To learn more about the College Board Standards for College Success, please visit collegeboard.com at http://professionals.collegeboard.com/k-12/standards.
The College Board
The College Board is a not-for-profit membership association whose mission is to connect students to college success and opportunity. Founded in 1900, the College Board is composed of more than 5,600 schools, colleges, universities and other educational organizations. Each year, the College Board serves seven million students and their parents, 23,000 high schools, and 3,800 colleges through major programs and services in college readiness, college admission, guidance, assessment, financial aid, enrollment, and teaching and learning. Among its best-known programs are the SAT®, the PSAT/NMSQT® and the Advanced Placement Program® (AP®). The College Board is committed to the principles of excellence and equity, and that commitment is embodied in all of its programs, services, activities and concerns. For further information, visit www.collegeboard.com.
CONTACT:
Nancy Viggiano, The College Board, 212-713-8052, communications@collegeboard.org