A Note from Wendy Van Norden, the far west section director of NESTA...
Dear Earth Science Educator,
Is there a crisis in California Earth Science?
I
received an email from a teacher about the Earth
Science crisis that she was seeing in her school district. (see letter
below)
That prompted me to wonder, is there a state-wide problem, and what, if anything, can we do about it?
First, let us compile some data. I have written a survey, could you please take it?
Please
forward this survey to other Earth Science High School and Middle
School teachers in California so that we can gather as much data as
possible.
When
I have compiled the results of the survey, I will get back to you, and
we will discuss how we may best address any concerns that we find.
Wendy Van Norden
NESTA Far West Director
Harvard-Westlake School
Studio City, CA 91604
818 487-6665
Letter from an earth science teacher
I
attended a training yesterday given by our school district
administration. During the training, we talked about the fact that the
formula used
to allot funds from the state to individual school districts will be
changing. One of the criteria for receiving funds will be the number of
high school students in the district that are enrolled in what are
called "a-g" classes. Basically, these are the classes
that CA universities look at when admitting students to the system.
To
put it simply, earth science is not considered an "a-g" course. Only
biology, physics, and chemistry are what they consider "d" lab-science
courses. We tried to get our earth science classes as a "g" requirement
(elective) but the university board denied it because they insisted on
an algebra prerequisite. We could try to get a "d" geology course but it
wouldn't cover all the NGSS standards.
Most
of the students in our earth sciences are our lower-academic kids who
have not mastered algebra (they are freshmen). What our district is
probably going to do is filter as many kids into biology as freshmen
and put the really low kids in earth science. I foresee earth science in
the future being integrated into the other sciences as districts
struggle to grab as much state money as they can.
It's
a dilemma since districts will not receive funds for students who earn a
"D" or "F" in a subject. I have a feeling that our district will
probably come up with an introductory physical science class that will
integrate most of the NGSS earth science standards and try to get a "d'
designation.
The
California Dept. of Education has said that they would like to see
integrated science classes at the high school level. They have already
made middle school science integrated.
Does anyone have any thoughts on this? Am I wrong in my assumptions? I came out of the training feeling really depressed.
