Dive Brief:
- Montana has proposed a new set of science standards that districts are expected to adopt in the next five years, and while they're similar to the Next Generation Science Standards, they are not exactly the same.
- The Missoulian reports the engineering standards that made it into NGSS are expected to be too expensive for some districts to adopt, and even with what is proposed, the state's Office of Public Instruction has set aside more than $500,000 to help districts defray these costs.
- The new standards offer grade-level expectations, a shift from the state's 2006 standards, which only identified what students should know by the end of grades 4, 8 and 12.
Dive Insight:
Montana participated as a lead state in the development of the Next Generation Science Standards, meaning it had the chance to comment on four drafts of the standards and contribute to the final product. These standards factor heavily into Montana’s state revision, but it has not joined 16 other states in adopting the NGSS as a whole.
The Next Generation Science Standards were released in 2013 and have flown largely under the radar as the Common Core State Standards in English language arts and math continue to draw the ire of families, teachers and politicians. The subjects covered by the Common Core are the two that tested by every state at least once per year in grades three through eight and again in high school.
In science, states are only required to test once in elementary, middle and high school. The NGSS, in general, require a focus on “doing” science, rather than simply reading about it, encouraging students to practice scientific inquiry like real scientists. That's not to say the standards came without controversy in some states, like Wyoming and West Virginia, where their inclusion of man-made climate change raised concerns in light of heavily fossil-fuel-dependent economies.