Picture: The Iowa State football team will practice at the Hoboken High Football Field in preparation for the annual Pinstripe Bowl at Yankee Stadium on Dec 30, 2011.
December 13 2011 BOE Stated Session Agenda
The following exam was given in 1931 by the West Virginia Department of Education to students seeking graduation from eighth grade. For many students, that was the last year of formal schooling. The exam was posted by Valerie Strauss (Washington Post- The Answer Sheet) who received it from John N. Beall of Wilmington, N.C., who received it from his father. The teacher who administered the test in a one-room school in Gilmer County, W.Va. Unfortunately, we do not know the results of the test- how students did. But, it is a wonderful example of what students were expected to know in the 8th grade in 1931 public schools. Beall sent this to Ms. Strauss and wrote:
"When I have shown the exam to people, including teachers, I am invariably asked if the teacher 'taught to the test.' The answer is 'no.' The students were given standard textbooks from which they studied as students do today. Two or three days before the day of the exam the school received a package from the state with directions not to open it until the day of the exam. In 1931, during the Great Depression, with work so difficult to come by, it is doubtful that any teacher would have risked the loss of their position by revealing the contents before exam day. My father certainly would not.
"The scope and depth of the exam speaks for itself. What is important to understand is that the students came from families that were very challenged financially, especially during the depression years. They lived on small family farms, and, just to make ends meet, every member of the family had to work on the farm. Each child had chores to do before and after school, and, as there were very few automobiles in that area, they walked to and from school each day, some of them walking several miles each way. At night after chores there was homework and then to bed. These young people were part of the 'Great Generation' that fought and died for freedom. Those who survived the war went on to build this great nation.
Picture: Gloster Elementary School. Gloster, Mississippi. 8th Grade. January 1931
This is an invitation I received recently to take part in a conversation and eventual meeting in Washington, DC with the National Research Council (NRC) Board on Science Education. The NRC is a division of the National Academies of Science. The issue at hand appears to be the integration of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics in K-12 education. I imagine some of my research work, along with the work with the UTeach program and my work in the Hoboken School District all contributed to being asked to participate.
In classroom discussions this semester I have tried to talk to students and colleagues about the differences between university life and life in a school district. At the university, this type of invitation is often seen as a positive thing and something that brings honor to the institution. At the school level, things are much more complicated. While a majority of people in the district would feel similarly to the university-- the school district often has an ill informed and politically motivated minority view. In Hoboken, this was embodied by a political group known as "Kids First." People from this group would often criticize and fault me for being out of the district for any imaginable reason-- this was true whether I was giving a lecture at Harvard, a presentation at the National Science Foundation, or visiting another university. I bring this up simply to point out the vile and vitriol that exists sometimes when dealing with district level politics in K-12 schools. -Dr. Petrosino
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Dear Dr. Petrosino,
I am writing regarding a new study the NRC Board on Science Education is undertaking in conjunction with the National Academy of Engineering to develop a strategic research agenda for determining the approaches and conditions most likely to lead to positive outcomes of integrated science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (iSTEM) education at the K-12 level. I am writing now to invite you to present to the committee at their second meeting on January 10 & 11 in Washington DC.
The focus of the session, which would be on the 10th, is a broad sense of the goals/objectives for integrated STEM. We are thinking this could be both the goals that people engaging in integrated STEM articulate themselves as well as the goals that integrated approaches might be especially effective in supporting. By goals/objectives we mean outcomes for students (achievement, learning, "21st century skills", interest, motivation, persistence in STEM, etc.) rather than the really broad overarching goals such as broadening participating or increasing workforce capacity. Following such an overview, we envision that the presentation would then provide a sketch of the evidence supporting the claims that iSTEM can support these goals/objectives. Or, in the absence of evidence, the kinds of evidence that would be needed. Our notion is the committee would get this broad cut to chew on at this meeting. Then we anticipate digging more deeply into the evidence base on individual goals/objectives at later meetings.
Of course, this is our starting point for thinking about the session. If you are interested and available, I'd like to talk to you in more detail about the session and get your input on what might be possible. Please let me know your availability for a call. If you are not available, I welcome your suggestions for others who might be good for presenting on these kinds of issues.
Thanks so much,
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Board on Science Education
The National Research Council
U.S. News & World Report’s 2012 edition of America’s Best Graduate Schools has ranked The University of Texas at Austin’s College of Education number one in the nation among public university graduate education programs and number two overall, tying with Harvard University. The College of Education is the first University of Texas at Austin graduate school, among those ranked yearly by U.S. News & World Report, to be named number one in the U.S.
The following is a letter to the editor which was printed in the October 9, 2011 edition of the Hoboken Reporter under the title of "Trouble in the Schools" (note: titles of letters are given by the newspaper and not the author of the letter) . The letter is by Ms. Theresa Burns, a former member of the Hoboken Board of Education, an educator in her own right, and a parent who sent children through the Hoboken Public Schools. For those readers in my class, I would like you to read the original article and Ms. Burns response and come to class ready to discuss the matter from the perspective of educational policy and administration. All others should feel free to post comments to this article below. -Dr. Petrosino
The next meeting of the Hoboken Board of Education will occur on 09/13/2011 - 7:00pm at the Board Meeting Room located at 1115 Clinton Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030. Click HERE for the official Public Notice of the meeting.
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Date: July 19, 2011 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Report Offers New Framework to Guide K-12 Science Education, Calls for Shift in the Way Science Is Taught in The committee that wrote the report sees the need for significant improvements in how science is taught in the The overarching goal of the framework, the committee said, is to ensure that by the end of 12th grade, all students have some appreciation of the beauty and wonder of science, the capacity to discuss and think critically about science-related issues, and the skills to pursue careers in science or engineering if they want to do so -- outcomes that existing educational approaches are ill-equipped to achieve. “Currently, science education in the U.S. lacks a common vision of what students should know and be able to do by the end of high school, curricula too often emphasize breadth over depth, and students are rarely given the opportunity to experience how science is actually done,” said Helen Quinn, committee chair and professor emerita of physics at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in Stanford, Calif. “The new framework is designed to address and overcome these weaknesses. It builds on what is known to work best in science education, based on research and classroom experience both in the The framework was developed by an 18-member committee that included experts in education and scientists from many disciplines. The committee publicly released a draft in summer 2010 to obtain and incorporate feedback from the broader community of scientists, science educators, educational policymakers, and education researchers. The framework is the first step in the development of new K-12 science education standards. The framework lays out the broad ideas and practices students should learn and will serve as the basis for specific standards, which will be developed in a process led by a group of states and coordinated by the nonprofit educational organization Achieve Inc. When the standards are finished, states may voluntarily adopt them to guide science education in their public schools. In addition to serving as the foundation for the development of new standards, the framework can be used by others who work in K-12 science education, such as curriculum and assessment developers, those who train teachers and create professional development materials, and state and district science supervisors. Science as Both Ideas and Practices The framework specifies core ideas in four disciplinary areas -- life sciences; physical sciences; earth and space sciences; and engineering, technology and the applications of science -- that all students should understand by the time they finish high school. For example, among the core ideas in the physical sciences are “matter and its interactions” and “energy.” Students’ knowledge of these ideas should deepen over time, and the framework specifies aspects of each idea that students should know by the end of grades two, five, eight, and 12. The framework also identifies seven crosscutting concepts that have explanatory value across much of science and engineering, such as “cause and effect” and “stability and change.” These concepts should be taught in the context of core ideas from the disciplines of science, the report says, but teachers should use a common language for these concepts across disciplines, so that students understand the same concept is relevant in many fields. These concepts should become familiar touchstones as students progress from kindergarten through 12th grade. Just as important are scientific and engineering practices, which have been given too little emphasis in K-12 education, the committee said. The framework specifies eight key practices that students should learn, such as asking questions and defining problems, analyzing and interpreting data, and constructing explanations and designing solutions. These practices should be integrated with study of the disciplinary core ideas and applied throughout students’ K-12 education. These three dimensions must be used together for students to understand how science works, the committee stressed. For example, students should use the practices -- such as conducting investigations and then analyzing and interpreting the data -- to deepen their knowledge of the core ideas. Putting the Framework to Use The report offers guidance to those who will use the framework to develop new science education standards. The standards should set rigorous learning goals that represent a common expectation for all students. They also should be limited in number to reflect the framework’s focus on a small set of core ideas and practices, and should include guidance about what does and does not need to be taught. Developing new standards is a key step in making K-12 science education more coherent and effective, but it is far from the only one, the committee said. Curricula will need to incorporate the framework’s ideas and practices, and teacher preparation and professional development programs should provide ways for teachers to deepen their own conceptual understanding of the practices and ideas of science. Assessments will need to be linked to the shared goals outlined by the framework and related standards. And time, space, and resources for science learning need to be made available. “For all students to have the opportunity to learn the ideas and practices we’ve described, many other players and parts of the system will need to change, some in fundamental ways,” said Quinn. The study was sponsored by Carnegie Corporation of Contacts: Sara Frueh, Media Relations Officer Shaquanna Shields, Media Relations Assistant Office of News and Public Information 202-334-2138; e-mail news@nas.edu Pre-publication copies of A Framework for K-12 Science Education are available from the National Academies Press; tel. 202-334-3313 or 1-800-624-6242 or on the Internet at http://www.nap.edu. NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education Committee on a Conceptual Framework for New Science Education Standards Helen Quinn (chair)1 Wyatt W. Anderson1 Tanya M. Atwater1
Thomas B. Corcoran Co-director Phillip A. Griffiths1 Emeritus Professor of Science Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology Professor Department of Physics Linda P.B. Katehi2 John C. Mather1 Brian Reiser Rebecca R. Richards-Kortum2 Walter G. Secada
STAFF Heidi Schweingruber Co-Study Director Tom Keller Co-Study Director 1 Member, 2 Member, National |
