New Alabama science standards increase rigor

MONTGOMERY, AL (WSFA) - The State Department of Education unanimously passed a new course of student for science to be rolled out in the summer of 2016.

Scientists, educators, college professors and industry leaders have spent three years constructing the new standard of science education for students.

The change is gaining attention, not due to the added rigor, but because of two politically charged topics -- evolution and global climate change.

"If you look up the term evolution, it only occurs one time in the course of study," said Steve Ricks, Director of AMSTI for the State Department of Education. "There's not much difference there. We do include studying about global climate change. They ask students to analyze the data and look at the research on that and form their own opinions on that."

The new standards aim to increase science scores, which have appeared flat for years.

Ricks shared the recent ACT data showed Alabama students are extremely interested in going into STEM careers like the medical fields, including nursing, physicians and veterinary sciences.

However, test scores indicated students are not prepared to enter those fields.

"The committee that wrote the course of study, and what they are charged with are making our students more college and career ready," Ricks explained. "Students should be able to go into college and pass those introductory courses in science  without any problem."

The new standards greatly increase science rigor from kindergarten to 12th grade, forcing students to apply what they learn.

Students will be expected to reason and problem solve based on their lessons learned inside the classroom.

"The old course of study you could read about in a text book and that's about it," Ricks said. "When you look at the new course of study, students are having to do things like design, construct and test and do things like evaluate to plan and carry out investigations. It is going to include textbook learning, but it is going to go far beyond that."

These are the minimum standards. School districts and teachers will have the latitude on how to teach and apply the new course of study.

"The new science standards have been put out for review two separate times now to include transparency in the process," Ricks said. "What we heard were mainly positive comments. Teachers say this is the way science ought be taught. It's the standards that will get our children to where they need to be able to compete with others across the nation."

Viewers sounded off about the topics of evolution and global climate change in the new science standards, so we took that interest and gauged the level of learning on those topics across the tri-county area.

Montgomery and Elmore County Schools quickly responded, confirming the state required education on evolution was already being taught in various grades on various platforms.

Montgomery County went on to confirm global climate change is already being taught in some classrooms,

both have plans to implement new curriculum in the 2016 school year.

Pike Road School quickly responded by confirming it will teach the new standards as it applies to grades k-7.

Autauga County assured us the new standards will be pushed down to all classroom teachers to ensure compliance.

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