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Indiana Science Education Alliance Formed to Help Educators Implement Effective K-12 Science Curriculum

Posted on: Friday, 1 October 2004, 06:00 CDT

Recent Statistics Rank Indiana Low in Preparing Students for Post-Secondary Training

A coalition of educators, corporate interests and non-profit leaders has been formed to address issues brought up by recent student performance measurements in standardized tests and national 'report cards'. This group, called the Indiana Science Education Alliance (Science Alliance), will focus on finding solutions to the challenges facing science education in Indiana.

The recently released study by The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, Measuring Up 2002: The State-By-State Report Card for Higher Education, gives Indiana a C- grade overall in preparing its students for education and training beyond high school, with only a slight improvement over 2000 statistics. The 2002 study is the second in a series of biennial state by state report cards measuring five categories of performance, including preparation.

Illinois and Michigan received 'B' rankings (B+ and B, respectively), while Kentucky and Ohio also received 'C' rankings (C- and C+, respectively) in 2002.

Indiana is not the only state that needs to do more to prepare its students, especially for science and math courses beyond high school. According to the study, "In only 13 states do more than half of all high school students take an upper-level math course. No states reach this threshold in science course taking."

Indiana Statewide Testing for Educational Progress (ISTEP) scores have also played a critical role in the formation of the Science Alliance. With the completion of ISTEP testing this week, there is increasing pressure on educators to improve scores from last year. 38% of the state's 5th - graders failed Indiana's first ISTEP science test in 2004, and only 7% of students earned a 'pass plus' score.

The Science Alliance is addressing these dismal statistics by developing a two-year plan to provide assistance and support to the state's teachers and by lending their expertise to decision-makers to help increase Indiana's scores and capacity in science and math.

Deb Robertson, Director of the Indiana Science Education Alliance, believes now is the right time to increase awareness of critical education needs and possible solutions. According to an article in INContext, a publication of Indiana University's Indiana Business Research Center, Indiana gained jobs in life sciences at more than twice the rate of the nation from 2001 to 2003. "Indiana must have a well-trained workforce in order to support our growing life sciences industry and other targeted sectors, like advanced manufacturing," said Robertson.

Another key factor in the formation of the Science Alliance was the recruitment of the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) to Indianapolis in 2006. The Intel ISEF is the world's largest pre-college celebration of science. "This event is critical to drawing attention to the need for strong science education in Indiana," said Robertson. "We must do everything possible to leave a lasting legacy of this event and spark interest in science among our students."

The Science Alliance will focus its two-year plan on implementing inquiry-based science curriculum and thematic learning, integration techniques for science, math and language arts and helping to strengthen university programs that emphasize effective teaching methods in university School of Education programs.

To help implement the plan, the Science Alliance is initiating several programs. Among them are the development of workshops and road shows to take best-practices to K-12 educators, conduct a survey of teachers and higher education representatives to better understand their needs and best methods of delivery and to serve as a partner and resource to the state and schools in text book adoption. Because textbook adoption only occurs every seven years, this year presents an opportunity to take a step toward improving science teaching tools. Several more ideas will be evaluated in upcoming meetings.

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