Standards and Expectations

The launching of Sputnik in 1957 renewed interest in K-12 science education, but it wasn’t until the 1990s that the standards movement gained traction. Standards provide a framework defining the science that is important for all students to know, understand and be able to do, but they do not define curriculum. That task is reserved for states and local school districts. The first science standards document, National Science Education Standards, was published in 1996 which led to the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) in 2013. One goal is a greater number of scientifically literate high school graduates. This paper will consider how and why standards were created, how the content of the standards is described, and how chemistry education will need to change if NGSS are widely implemented in U.S. K-12 classrooms.