Researchers Set 'Ambitious' Time Line For Developing New Science Standards

By Peter West

CHICAGO--The national education goals' emphasis on science achievement has helped place the development of national standards for precollegiate science teaching, curriculum, and assessment on a "fast track," a spokesman for the National Academy of Sciences said here last week.

Speaking at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, David Florio, the principal staff officer of the Coordinating Council for Education, an arm of the N.A.S.'S National Research Council, said the curriculum standards should be completed by the late fall of 1993.

Drafts of the teaching and assessments standards are expected to be completed at roughly the same time, Mr. Florio said. The final set of standards is scheduled for release for...