The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), created by the the National Research Council (NRC) have begun to change science classes at Piedmont High School, in that they require an emphasis on earth science, and future state-mandated testing.
The NGSS is a part of the Common Core program.
“The NGSS aligns with the Common Core in that they value a lot of evidence based reasoning,” science teacher Shelley Seto said.
The overall goal of the NGSS is to make high school science classes more applicable to evidence based reasoning.
“Ultimately [the new standards] seek to prepare kids for the 21st century,” principal Brent Daniels said. “It’s designed around implementing all areas of discipline in the science curriculum to make a more applicable curriculum.”
The NGSS seek to not only benefit students in science classes, but also beyond high school.
“The standards are really meant to look at the new millennials and to consider if what we are doing in high school aligns with secondary careers and schools,” Daniels said.
According to the NGSS’s website, post-secondary education is a necessity to gain a well paying job and a strong background in science effectively prepares students for success in post-secondary education and careers. However, the United States has fallen in rankings for high school completion rate and in the percentage of adults with a two or four year degree, according to the NGSS website.
“The NGSS are supposed to make the United States education system more competitive on a global level,” Daniels said.
Under the new standards, all fields of science are to be reassessed for further improvement, however the NGSS particularly emphasize the importance of earth science, in which PHS currently does not offer a course, Daniels said.
“We have to look at our curriculum and say, ‘Where would it make sense to integrate the earth science curriculum?’” Daniels said.
The NGSS not only emphasize specific content, but also focus on student evaluation.
“The NGSS has these practices that we are supposed covering with students and evaluating them on,” Seto said. “A lot of them have to do with asking questions, evaluating evidence and preparing experiments.”
In the spring of the last school year, sophomores took the California State Test (CST) in life sciences. However, under the NGSS, a new test will issued.
“The first NGSS test will occur in 2018, however we don’t know what it will look like,” Seto said.
