District's science education standards top the nation

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.