The Next Generation Science Standards are starting to build steam, as state boards of education in four states voted in June to adopt them. Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, and Vermont join Rhode Island, where the standards were approved in May.
The K-12 standards were issued in final form this spring. Key tenets include providing a greater emphasis on depth over breadth in science education and asking students to apply their learning through the practices of scientific inquiry and engineering design.
The Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a Washington think tank, last month gave the standards a C based on its review, and suggested that states are better off looking elsewhere should they wish to overhaul their standards.
