It looks like the idea of establishing World Class Standards (previous post here)Â fizzled out:
Among the measures to die in the Senate were a plan to replace public-school standards with a “world class” curriculum and a bill to create an “ideas bank” for Floridians to make suggestions to the Legislature. Both proposals were prized entries in Rubio’s book, 100 Innovative Ideas for Florida’s Future.
I liked this article about the state senate picking apart the plan the house had easily passed:
TALLAHASSEE — A proposal to overhaul the state’s public school curriculum with “world-class standards” won a unanimous victory Monday in the House.
But, as sometimes happens in the Legislature, the Senate begged to differ.
Just moments after the House vote of 113-0, senators doused the plan with skepticism.
“Oh, please,” said Sen. Frederica Wilson, D-Miami, vice chairwoman of the Senate’s Pre-K-12 committee.
“How do you define ‘world-class’ standards? What does that mean?”
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The words “world class†is used a lot these days and in different ways. So, of course, in themselves they have not meaning. However, they can have meaning. I would define “world class†standards to mean the following:
• Scientifically accurate and current.
• Clear and understandable so that science teachers can understand what is expected at each grade level.
• Organized around experimentation to help students learn how to think about solving problems and questions: i.e. the accumulation of facts and concepts should go hand-in-hand with laboratory or field investigations.
• Ordered so that the learning sequence goes from fact (earth science/biology) to the more conceptual theory (physical science) and acknowledge both the students mathematics skills and their brain readiness.
• Informative on the history and processes of science.
• Rigorous in honors classes science content.
• Strong in requirements for laboratory safety.
With standards like these we can expect our students to be able to compete with students from anywhere in the world.