The State of State Science Standards, 2012

This report examines K-12 science standards for fifty states and the District of Columbia, as well as the science assessment framework of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The reviewers' aim is to evaluate them for their intrinsic clarity, completeness, and scientific correctness. Their earlier evaluations, as well as those evaluations conducted by others, have made it clear that too many state science standards are mediocre to poor. In particular, there are four areas where they most frequently fail to measure up. These are: (1) An Undermining of Evolution; (2) A Propensity to be Vague; (3) Poor Integration of Scientific Inquiry; and (4) Where Did All the Numbers Go? Appended are: (1) Methods, Criteria, and Grading Metric; and (2) Detailed Grades, 2012. (Contains 17 footnotes and 1 table.) [Foreword by Chester E. Finn, Jr. and Kathleen Porter-Magee.]