Rhode Island has become the first state to adopt the Next Generation Science Standards. Its state board of education voted unanimously last month to approve them.
It is one of the 26 “lead state partners” that helped develop the standards in collaboration with several national organizations. At least two other states, Kentucky and Maine, have signaled that they would likely vote on adoption this spring.
The K-12 standards, more than three years in the making, went through two rounds of public comment before they were issued in final form last month. Two of the central tenets of the standards are 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.
