SBOE approves streamlined science standards

The State Board of Education in April gave final approval to streamlined science standards for kindergarten through high school.

Streamlining eliminates, clarifies or combines some standards without adding additional content.
Science is the first subject area to undergo a streamlining process.

This action came in response to comments from teachers who felt that there were too many standards, which made it difficult to teach all the content assigned to a specific grade level during the course of a school year.

The board considered about 70 amendments to the science standards during its April meeting, and approved most of them.

Compromise language on two high profile biology standards was approved after gathering input from a wide-range of constituents.

The board changed biology standard (4)(A) from “compare and contrast prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells and evaluate scientific explanation for their complexity;” as approved on first reading to:

“compare and contrast prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells, including their complexity, and compare and contrast scientific explanations for cellular complexity.”

The board also changed biology standard (6)(A), which, as approved on first reading, read: “identify components of DNA, describe how information for specifying the traits of an organism is carried in the DNA, and evaluate scientific explanations for the origin of DNA;”

When given final approval, the standard now reads “identify components of DNA, identify how information for specifying the traits of an organism is carried in the DNA, and examine scientific explanations for the origin of DNA.”

“It was clear from testifiers that many who had varied concerns found the compromise language chosen by the board to be acceptable, addressing both the need to streamline content while still encouraging critical thinking by students,” SBOE Chair Donna Bahorich said.

The board did agree to delay implementation of the streamlined science standards until the 2018-2019 school year to give districts and educators time to align curriculum and instructional materials to the streamlined standards.

Once the approved changes are incorporated into the TEKS, the final standards will be posted on the Science TEKS Streamlining page on the Texas Education Agency website.