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Inventory and Assessment of K-12 and Professional Teacher Development Programs in the National Estuarine Research Reserve System

E. RESULTS

National and State Educational Standards

National content-based standards for science literacy were developed and first published in 1993. One hundred-fifty teachers and administrators from six school districts developed benchmarks for Science Literacy. The focus for these standards was to develop a tool that educators in every state and school district could use to create their curricula to achieve literacy in science, mathematics, and technology for all students upon graduation from high school.

From that initial movement, each state developed or is in the process of developing or redesigning its own set of content-based standards. These standards are benchmarks that students must achieve. There are standards for each grade level and for each subject. Students’ knowledge is determined by standardized tests designed to measure each benchmark. Since this movement took place in the early 1990’s many informal science institutions (i.e. science centers, zoos, nature centers, etc.) have designed their programs to correlate with the content-based standards in their state. One of the objectives of this study is to determine if each Reserve correlates their programs to the standards in their state and to the national benchmarks.

On average ECs have moderate experience (5.27 on a 1-10 scale, where 1 equals no experience and 10 equals extensive experience) correlating programs to national and state education standards. The median is a 5.0 indicating that about half of the respondents rate their experience in this area as a 5 or less and about half rate it above 5. On closer inspection, over half (63%) rate their experience as a 6 or less (Fig. 21).

Figure 21. How much experience do you have correlating programs state and national standards?
Figure 21

In the individual program analysis each EC reported whether or not each of their programs are correlated with state education standards and national education standards. Most programs are not correlated to national standards, which is not surprising because school systems are ultimately held accountable to state standards (Fig. 22). Nearly 60% of the programs are correlated to state standards, however more than 40% of the programs are not (Fig. 23).

Figure 22. Is the Program Correlated to National Education Standards?

Figure 22
 Figure 22

Figure 23. Is the Program Correlated to State Education Standards?

Figure 22 Figure 22

The question “For the programs that you have correlated to state and national standards, how were the correlations done?” reports that the program is developed and then state standards are identified and correlated to the program. This happens in most cases because many Reserve programs are well established. However, several also reported that for programs currently in development, they are working more closely with teachers to design them to meet state standards and fit the education system in their community.

Throughout the country, Reserves report that it is increasingly difficult to have students and teachers visit the Reserve for programs if they do not fulfill specific state standards. This trend indicates that it is important for ECs and their education staff to work closely with schools and to keep current on education initiatives within their state.