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Please read the following timely message from Barbara Petersen, our APS School Board Representative:
Dear Friends,
I am extremely grateful for all of the emails and comments I have received about the Next Generation Science Standards(NGSS), and the firm stand that everyone from educators to scientists to parents to the community at large are all taking in defense of real science for our children.
These standards were developed by scientist and educators to be firmly grounded in science with a solid awareness of children’s developmental levels. Scientific knowledge for children begins with curiosity about the world and grows as curiosity is connected with scientific inquiry and knowledge of research and evidence-based theory.
New Mexico’s Public Education Department (PED) has taken the NGSS and altered them into to the New Mexico STEM-Ready Science Standards(NMSRS), omitting or altering the standards that provide the basis for evolution, the age of the earth and climate science. These changes are not based on science, but rather politics, and confuse opinion and scientific fact. Everyone has a right to their opinions and their spiritual and religious beliefs, but that absolutely does not alter every child’s right to a strong, solid science education.
My first goal is to make sure that New Mexico adopt the NGSS without political alteration. The APS Board is sending a letter to the PED expressing that need. It is attached below, no longer a draft, but approved. Superintendent Reedy is sending a similar letter from the administration. The Albuquerque Teachers Federation is taking an active part in supporting the NGSS as are many other professional and community organizations and individuals. If you would like to weigh in, here are the proposed NMSRS: http://ped.state.nm.us/ped/PublicNotices.html,
Approval of the national NGSS will only be the first step. Teachers will need time to learn the standards and develop the curriculum and instructional practices that truly enrich the experience and learning of students. The standards are the framework only. Children’s language, culture, experience and curiosity are part of dictating the shape and specific content of the instruction. That will take time and resources to develop. The goal of science education is to support thinking citizens, not another way to over-test and over-penalize our children.
Thank you,
Barbara
Barbara Petersen
APS Board of Education, District 4
505-288-6404
petersen_b@aps.edu
Please read the following timely message from Barbara Petersen, our APS School Board Representative:
Dear Friends,
I am extremely grateful for all of the emails and comments I have received about the Next Generation Science Standards(NGSS), and the firm stand that everyone from educators to scientists to parents to the community at large are all taking in defense of real science for our children.
These standards were developed by scientist and educators to be firmly grounded in science with a solid awareness of children’s developmental levels. Scientific knowledge for children begins with curiosity about the world and grows as curiosity is connected with scientific inquiry and knowledge of research and evidence-based theory.
New Mexico’s Public Education Department (PED) has taken the NGSS and altered them into to the New Mexico STEM-Ready Science Standards(NMSRS), omitting or altering the standards that provide the basis for evolution, the age of the earth and climate science. These changes are not based on science, but rather politics, and confuse opinion and scientific fact. Everyone has a right to their opinions and their spiritual and religious beliefs, but that absolutely does not alter every child’s right to a strong, solid science education.
My first goal is to make sure that New Mexico adopt the NGSS without political alteration. The APS Board is sending a letter to the PED expressing that need. It is attached below, no longer a draft, but approved. Superintendent Reedy is sending a similar letter from the administration. The Albuquerque Teachers Federation is taking an active part in supporting the NGSS as are many other professional and community organizations and individuals. If you would like to weigh in, here are the proposed NMSRS: http://ped.state.nm.us/ped/PublicNotices.html,
Approval of the national NGSS will only be the first step. Teachers will need time to learn the standards and develop the curriculum and instructional practices that truly enrich the experience and learning of students. The standards are the framework only. Children’s language, culture, experience and curiosity are part of dictating the shape and specific content of the instruction. That will take time and resources to develop. The goal of science education is to support thinking citizens, not another way to over-test and over-penalize our children.
Thank you,
Barbara
Barbara Petersen
APS Board of Education, District 4
505-288-6404
petersen_b@aps.edu
