Making the Case for School-based Systemic Reform in Science Education

Abstract

Over the last decade, stakeholders in science education have been grappling with the challenge of bringing inservice teachers up to speed with changes called for in the National Science Education Standards (NSES), including the use of inquiry as the ‘‘central strategy for teaching science’’ (National Research Council 1996). Individual teacher professional development programs served as a good way for teachers who chose to attend to learn how to use inquiry and create a more studentcentered learning environment (Czerniak et al. 2005; Kahle et al. 2000; Keys and Bryan 2000; Wright and Wright 2000). However, these experiences often did not result in school-level change due to the short duration of most programs, and the fact that only a few teachers (if any) per school participated (Shymansky et al. 2004). No Child Left Behind (NCLB) shortly followed NSES and worked to stifle the teaching of science in order to provide further instructional time for reading and mathematics. The message to teachers was clear—science was no longer a high instructional priority. For the seven-year period that followed, professional development programs at the district and school level focused on areas other than science and the majority of opportunities for teachers were outside of their local districts, though funding for those opportunities was often directed toward reading and mathematics. In 2007, NCLB-mandated assessment of science was implemented and focus was shifted back to science. Instructional time for science was inserted back into the schedule for teachers—many of whom had not been provided the opportunity to learn about and understand NSES-based science teaching. The result was that many teachers and schools were ‘‘left behind’’ in regards to understanding effective science instruction. Many students in classrooms across the U.S. today are not being given the opportunity to learn and do science, as Banilower et al. (2006) found only 14% of classrooms were high-quality in their national study. There is evidence in