Panel Moves Toward 'Next Generation' Science Standards

As part of a national effort to produce “next generation” science standards for K-12 education, a panel of experts convened by the National Research Council yesterday issued a draft of a conceptual framework designed to guide the standards and “move science education toward a more coherent vision.”

One key goal of the effort is to focus science instruction on a more limited number of core ideas that students can learn in greater depth.

“The growing national consensus around the need for ‘fewer, higher, clearer’ [standards] is central to this effort,” the draft framework declares. “There is widespread recognition that too often standards are long lists of detailed and disconnected facts, reinforcing the criticism that the U.S. science curriculum tends to be ‘a mile wide...