Cutting Edge

The Education Accountability Act of 1998 requires the South Carolina Department of Education to review and revise the academic standards in each of the subject matter content areas.  The start of the 2006-2007 school year finds us with the revised South Carolina Science Academic Standards for the state’s students in kindergarten through grade twelve.  This document can be found at the following website:  http://ed.sc.gov/agency/Offices/cso/science/StandardsRevision2004.html

The structure and organization of the South Carolina science standards document have been changed in several ways:

• An overview describing specific subject matter and themes is now provided on a cover page for each grade and each high school core area.
• The number of standards—which ranges from five to seven for each grade or high school core area—has been significantly reduced.
• Academic standards are specified for nine grade levels (kindergarten through grade eight) and five high school core areas: physical science, biology, chemistry, physics, and earth science.
• The standards for kindergarten through the eighth grade are no longer organized by content area—life science, earth science, or physical science. However, the specific area from which each of the content standards is drawn is specified in parenthesis immediately following the statement of the standard.
• The revised standards were written using the guidelines from A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing: A Revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives.  The main verbs in the indicators are taxonomic—that is, they identify specific aspects of the cognitive process as described in the revised Bloom’s taxonomy, which is included in the standards document in appendix B. Use of this new taxonomy will allow teachers to identify the kind of content (knowledge) addressed in the indicators (as factual, conceptual, procedural, or metacognitive) and will help teachers to align their lessons with both the content and the cognitive process identified in the indicators.
• Each standard is now stated as one full sentence that begins with the clause “The student will demonstrate an understanding of . . .” and goes on to specify the particular topics to be addressed by that standard. The verb phrase “to demonstrate an understanding of” is used with its general, everyday meaning and does not describe a cognitive category from the taxonomy.
• Following each of the academic standard statements are indicators, which are intended to help meet teachers’ needs for specificity. These indicators are statements of the specific cognitive processes (expressed in the main verbs) and the content knowledge and skills that students must demonstrate in order to meet the grade-level or high school core area standard.
• The term including appears frequently in parenthetical statements in the science indicators to introduce a list of specifics that are intended to clarify and focus the teaching and learning of the particular concept. That is, within these parenthetical including statements are specified the components of the indicator that are critical for the specific grade level or core area with regard both to the state assessments and to the management of time in the classroom. Teachers must focus their instruction on the entire indicator, but they also need to include in the instruction the components specified in the parenthetical including statements.
• In addition to the content standards, each grade and high school core area has a separate scientific inquiry standard, with indicators that are now differentiated across grade levels and core areas. The skills, processes, and tools specified in the scientific inquiry indicators are also embedded in the content standards and indicators wherever appropriate. Unlike the content standards, however, scientific inquiry is a process standard with indicators that specify the tools and equipment, safety procedures, and investigative skills and approaches that must be mastered in conjunction with the topics identified in the content standards for the particular grade level or high school core area. Magnifiers, thermometers, graduated cylinders, and spring scales are examples of tools that students must learn to use accurately, safely, and appropriately. Teachers should note that only those tools that have not been introduced in earlier grades are listed in the scientific inquiry indicators at the higher levels. Scientific inquiry standards and indicators will be assessed cumulatively on statewide tests. Therefore, as students progress through the grade levels, they are responsible for the scientific inquiry indicators—including a knowledge of the use of tools—from all their earlier grades. In accordance with that fact, only those tools that have not been identified in the earlier grades are listed at each successive grade level.
• The South Carolina Science Academic Standards is not a curriculum. The academic standards in the document are not sequenced for instruction, do not prescribe classroom activities or materials, and do not dictate instructional strategies, approaches, and practices.
• A Science Standards Support Guide will assist the districts in constructing their own standards-based science curriculum, allowing them to add or expand topics they feel are important and to organize the content to fit their students’ needs and materials.  The Support Guide expands upon each indicator to provide educators with additional content information such as guidelines for assessment and includes suggested materials and resources for use in the classroom.  The Science Standards Support Guide can be found at the following website: http://ed.sc.gov/agency/offices/cso/standards/science/

The science standards were developed under the direction of Lucinda Saylor, Deputy Superintendent, Curriculum Services and Assessment.

The State Department of Education extends special thanks to Karen Stratton, science coordinator at Lexington School District One, who, in serving as a member of the SDE science standards revision team, shared her knowledge of science and the expertise she has gained from her considerable district and classroom experience.

The following SDE staff members assisted in the design and development of this document:

Mathematics and Science Unit
Dr. John Holton, Coordinator
Heyward Hickman, Education Associate, Revision Team Leader
Connie Chappelear, Science Specialist
Martha Fout, Science Specialist
Alice Gilchrist, Science Specialist
Linda Sinclair, Education Associate for K–12 Science

Standards Design Unit
Dr. Andrea Keim, Coordinator
Dr. Pat Mohr, Education Associate, Standards and Assessment

Office of Assessment
Amelia Brailsford, Coordinator
Dr. Linda Schoen-Giddings, Science Assessment Specialist
Kathy Ortlund, Science Assessment Specialist

Office of Early Childhood Education
Dr. Linda Mims, Director

Office of State Superintendent
Dr. Gayle Swanson, Editor