Comments on: 5 Things You Can Do to Help Science Education in the Bay Area http://science.kqed.org/quest/2008/10/21/5-things-you-can-do-to-help-science-education-in-the-bay-area/ Explore science, nature and environment stories from Northern California and beyond with KQED’s multimedia series Thu, 24 May 2012 05:51:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Frank A. Brash http://science.kqed.org/quest/2008/10/21/5-things-you-can-do-to-help-science-education-in-the-bay-area/#comment-11679 Frank A. Brash Thu, 22 Apr 2010 16:43:57 +0000 http://www.kqed.org/quest/blog/?p=902#comment-11679 I am a special education teacher (grades 5 and 6) in the Hayward Unified School District. We MUST address the impact No Child Left Behind has had on the daily class schedule. With the major focus on reading proficiency, all other subjects have been given less importance. If you work in a school or district that is under Program Improvement, there is a more strict schedule that must be followed, dictated by the state. Currently, in our district, at the 5th and 6th grade level, we daily spend a mandatory 45 minutes on English Language Development/Academic Language Development, two hours on Language Arts, 30 minutes on Language Arts intervention, 60 minutes on Mathematics, 15 minutes on Mathematics intervention. This doesn't take into account picking students up from breaks, transition times, help solving problems that arise throughout the day. What's left is very little time to teach Science, Social Studies, and Art completely and correctly. The state and federal government have mandated this unbalance in curriculum and the results for Science are not surprising. I am a special education teacher (grades 5 and 6) in the Hayward Unified School District.
We MUST address the impact No Child Left Behind has had on the daily class schedule. With the major focus on reading proficiency, all other subjects have been given less importance. If you work in a school or district that is under Program Improvement, there is a more strict schedule that must be followed, dictated by the state. Currently, in our district, at the 5th and 6th grade level, we daily spend a mandatory 45 minutes on English Language Development/Academic Language Development, two hours on Language Arts, 30 minutes on Language Arts intervention, 60 minutes on Mathematics, 15 minutes on Mathematics intervention. This doesn't take into account picking students up from breaks, transition times, help solving problems that arise throughout the day. What's left is very little time to teach Science, Social Studies, and Art completely and correctly.
The state and federal government have mandated this unbalance in curriculum and the results for Science are not surprising.

]]> By: Jessica http://science.kqed.org/quest/2008/10/21/5-things-you-can-do-to-help-science-education-in-the-bay-area/#comment-11677 Jessica Tue, 11 Nov 2008 00:43:51 +0000 http://www.kqed.org/quest/blog/?p=902#comment-11677 Hi Brian, Yes, you are absolutely right about the standards! Many of our QUEST stories aim to give context to the topics covered in the standards, but we know that it's not always easy to find what you are looking for. That said, we are currently working on a new system for finding stories for particular standards. Look for some changes in the next few months! ~ Jessica Hi Brian,

Yes, you are absolutely right about the standards! Many of our QUEST stories aim to give context to the topics covered in the standards, but we know that it's not always easy to find what you are looking for. That said, we are currently working on a new system for finding stories for particular standards. Look for some changes in the next few months!

~ Jessica

]]> By: Brian http://science.kqed.org/quest/2008/10/21/5-things-you-can-do-to-help-science-education-in-the-bay-area/#comment-11678 Brian Fri, 31 Oct 2008 22:34:28 +0000 http://www.kqed.org/quest/blog/?p=902#comment-11678 Hello Jessica, I enjoyed this article and I agree with you (of course because I teach science and that's how I get paid). As we all know (or maybe don't?) California has gone insane over teaching to the standards it might be a good idea for QUEST to focus it's content production on these standards. This will increase the viewership and also increase teacher's ability to teach the standards and avoid persecution. Just an idea. Hopefully the standards will melt away as global warming increases and we can just focus on creating well rounded students instead of fact retention robots. Until then make a video on Biology standard 2b! Hello Jessica,

I enjoyed this article and I agree with you (of course because I teach science and that's how I get paid).

As we all know (or maybe don't?) California has gone insane over teaching to the standards it might be a good idea for QUEST to focus it's content production on these standards. This will increase the viewership and also increase teacher's ability to teach the standards and avoid persecution. Just an idea. Hopefully the standards will melt away as global warming increases and we can just focus on creating well rounded students instead of fact retention robots. Until then make a video on Biology standard 2b!

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