Florida Department of Education

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Florida Departmentof Education

• Bureau of School Improvement
• Office of Curriculum Support

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Sally SandersScience Curriculum Specialist

• Topics
• Textbook Adoptions
• School Chemical Cleanout Campaign
• PASS Materials
• Resources
• Sunshine State Standards Revision

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Textbook Adoptions

• The Science Textbook Committees met in September
  and October to make recommendations.
• Commissioner Winn will make the final approval
  based on committees recommendations.
• List of approved science textbooks will be
  available by end of the year.

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SC3 School Chemical Cleanout Campaign

• Partnership between the DOE and the DEP
• Goals
• Assist schools with chemical disposal
• Identify dangerous chemicals
• Promote safe chemical management
• Provide teacher training
• Comply with local, state and federal guidelines

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PASS Materials

• Supplementary resources for secondary classes
  with diverse learning needs and achievement
  levels available from the Office of Workforce
  Education [phone]
• PASS Science Books
• Biology
• Earth/Space Science
• Physical Science
• Marine Science
• Integrated Science (in development phase)

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Resources

• Professional Development in Science Curriculum
• Florida Space Research Institutes Advanced
  Learning Environment offers free web-based
  courses for math and science teachers www.advanc
  edlearningenvironment.org

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Sunshine State Standards Revision
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Revision Process

• In 2005, the SSS were reviewed by
• The College Board in Language Arts and
  Mathematics
• The International Center for Leadership in
  Education under Bill Daggett
• An Internet stakeholder input system in spring
  2005 was posted on the DOE website so that
  stakeholders could suggest changes to individual
  benchmarks in all subjects.

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Reviewer comments on the SSS

• The rigor of the early curriculum is not carried
  forward through the middle and high school years.
  
• A lack of specificity in the middle grades
  contributes to a lack of rigor
• This lack of progressive development or spiraling
  across grades levels represents the most pressing
  issue to be addressed

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Blueprint to Guide Revision Process

• The original SSS were designed for use by
  curriculum developers rather than for direct use
  by teachers, even though teachers are most often
  the curriculum developers. It was intended that
  the standards would be placed in the
  instructional context of a lesson or learning
  activity that would provide more specific
  expectations of students. A lack of specificity
  was intentional to allow flexibility in local
  curriculum development. The new benchmarks will
  be designed for more direct use by teachers and
  will need to provide more specific guidance to
  teachers as to what needs to be taught and, even,
  how it might be taught.

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Blueprint to Guide Revision Process

• Standards will be benchmarked at each grade for
  K-5 in every subject.
• Language Arts standards will be benchmarked for
  each grade 6-12.
• Mathematics will be benchmarked at each grade
  K-8.
• GLEs and benchmarks will be substituted for each
  other, combined or eliminated. There will be
  only benchmarks in the new SSS and no GLEs.

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Blueprint to Guide Revision Process

• Only language changes that are necessary,
  according to the blueprint, will be made. It is
  important to preserve the language or most of the
  language of as many existing benchmarks as
  possible in order to minimize the impact of
  change.

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Blueprint to Guide Revision Process

• All benchmarks and GLEs must be reviewed to
  determine those that represent the absolute
  essential learning for which the state will hold
  schools and students accountable. 
• The standards level will not be revised, thus
  preserving broad content coverage.
• The benchmarks, for which the state holds schools
  and students accountable, may address only
  selected content at a particular grade or grade
  cluster.

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Blueprint to Guide Revision Process

• If the benchmark or GLE is not absolutely vital
  to a representative core of knowledge and skills
  in the subject that students must master to be
  successful in the 21st century, it should be
  deleted or incorporated into other items.

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Blueprint to Guide Revision Process

• As a rough guideline, all the benchmarks for a
  grade should be able to be taught and learned in
  about 100 days throughout the school year,
  leaving the remaining instructional time for
  reteaching, remediation, review, maintenance and
  for additional content.  It is expected that as a
  guideline 25- 30 of the benchmarks or GLEs
  should be eliminated in each subject.

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Blueprint to Guide Revision Process

• Benchmarks must be developmentally appropriate
  and rigorous by spiraling knowledge and skills
  up through the grades. This scaffolding must be
  done very carefully to differentiate true levels
  of increasing rigor and complexity.
• In summary, a majority of benchmarks must
  delineate, with more precise specificity, a clear
  and coherent, developmentally appropriate
  sequence of progression of expected knowledge and
  skills across grades that reflect increasing
  rigor and relevance.

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Blueprint to Guide Revision Process

• Benchmarks must require relevance by applying
  prior knowledge and experiences of students and
  in addressing real world applications that
  interest them and for which they must be prepared
  in the adult world of postsecondary education, in
  the workplace and to be a responsible family
  member and citizen. 

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Blueprint to Guide Revision Process

• K-2 benchmarks will emphasize the development of
  mathematics and language skills, particularly
  reading, with limited benchmarks at this level in
  other subjects (science, social studies, arts,
  health, phys ed, etc). Benchmarks in these
  subjects will focus on the development of inquiry
  and thinking processes, background knowledge and
  vocabulary important to these subjects rather
  than specific content.

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Blueprint to Guide Revision Process

• Any changes that will impact state assessment
  require approval from Assessment staff.
• There will be widespread stakeholder review of
  the revisions. An On-line website along with
  focus groups and stakeholder meetings will occur
  in the fall of 2005.

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Questions

• Sally Sanders Science Curriculum Specialist
• Sally.Sanders_at_fldoe.org
• (850)-245-0813
• Richard Hardy- Director of Curriculum Support
• richard.hardy_at_fldoe.org
• (850)-245-0764