Project 2061 Puts Big Mark On Curriculum

By Millicent Lawton

A decade-long national science-reform project crafted by a federation of scientists has had a big impact on both national standards for science education and state curriculum frameworks, an independent study has found.

Project 2061, launched in 1985 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, produced both "Science for All Americans" in 1989 and "Benchmarks for Science Literacy" in 1993. The influence of those documents on the movement for voluntary national standards in science "is one of the project's most significant contributions," concludes the year-long evaluation conducted by SRI International of Menlo Park, Calif., and released last week.

"Project 2061's broad influence demonstrates its positive contribution to the national climate for science education reform," the report says. Taking concepts in different stages of development from different groups, it says, "Project 2061 wove these concepts together into one coherent, comprehensive, compelling vision of science literacy and disseminated the unified vision to a greater number of communities and...