Science provision proposed; Governor wants grad requirement
Worcester Telegram & Gazette
Clive McFarlane, Telegram & Gazette Staff
January 26, 2005
Gov. Mitt Romney yesterday urged the state Board of Education to strengthen
the public schools' science curriculum, including a request that science
become a graduation requirement.
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Among other things, Mr. Romney noted that last spring nearly one-third
of the state's eighth-graders did not pass the MCAS science exam, and
in the state's five largest school systems more than half of the students
did not pass. Massachusetts is one of only eight states without statewide
science requirements for students.
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State education officials, who have already set a tentative 2009 deadline to
make science a graduation requirement, supported the governor's reform measures,
but said it is unlikely that the 2009 deadline to require science studies
for graduation would be moved up.
Roberta R. Schaefer, a member of the state Board of Education, said it is still
unclear whether the next graduation requirement should be science or U.S. history.
"That is still to be discussed," she said.
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What will be more important is whether the state can make inroads in the other areas in which the governor wants to move, Ms. Schaefer said.
"We need to provide principals with greater authority," she said. "Seniority should not supercede the principals' authority to put together the team they feel will help their schools succeed academically."
Others, such as S. Paul Reville, executive director of the Rennie Center for Education Research and Policy at MassINC, wondered whether making science a graduation requirement should be the focus at this point. He noted that many students are still struggling to master the standards of the two subjects now required for graduation.
"It is in the state's strategic interest to provide greater focus on science education, but I am not sure at this point that using it as a graduation requirement is the most feasible way to do that. I think we still have so far to go to attain proficiency in the two subjects that the state is already monitoring," he said.
"How do you get proficiency in a third subject, when we have a lot of gaps to close in the original two requirements?" he asked.
Mr. Reville said a more measured course would be to hold schools and districts more accountable in upgrading their science curriculum, instruction and resources. For example, he said, the state's annual assessment of school districts' performance should take into account how well districts are moving students to proficiency in science.
"We should make the adults accountable before we starting making students accountable," he said.
Schools Superintendent James A. Caradonio said that before science becomes a graduation requirement, the state should ensure more spending on professional development, instructional materials and other resources to improve science education.
