Benchmarks for Science Literacy
A tool for curriculum reform
Benchmarks
for Science Literacy is the Project 2061 statement of what all students
should know and be able to do in science, mathematics, and technology by the
end of grades 2, 5, 8, and 12. The recommendations at each grade level suggest
reasonable progress toward the adult science literacy goals laid out in the
project's 1989 report Science for All Americans. Benchmarks can help
educators decide what to include in (or exclude from) a core curriculum, when
to teach it, and why.
Published in 1993 by Oxford University Press, Benchmarks for Science Literacy
emerged from more than three years of work by Project 2061 staff in collaboration
with teams of teachers at Project 2061's six School-District Centers, and
with scientists and university consultants. It reflects the input of more
than 1,300 individuals.
Designing a Curriculum
Benchmarks is not a curriculum, a curriculum framework, or a plan for
a curriculum. It provides educators with sequences of specific learning goals
that they can use to design a core curriculum—one that makes sense to
them and will help students achieve the basic science literacy goals outlined
in Science for All Americans. Benchmarks does not advocate any particular
teaching methods or curriculum design, nor does it spell out goals for advanced
performance. In fact, it encourages greater curriculum diversity than is common
today. To help educators as they rethink their curriculum Benchmarks:
- describes levels of understanding and ability that all students are expected
to reach on the way to becoming science literate;
- concentrates on the common core of learning that contributes to the science
literacy of all students while acknowledging that most students have interests
and abilities that go beyond that common core, and some have learning
difficulties that must be considered;
- avoids language used for its own sake, in part to reduce sheer burden,
and in part to prevent vocabulary from being mistaken for understanding;
- is informed by research on how students learn, particularly as it relates
to the selection and grade placement of benchmarks; and
- encourages educators to recognize the interconnectedness of knowledge
and to build these important connections into their curriculum units and
materials.
Putting Benchmarks to Work
Project 2061 has spent several years considering the implications that specific
learning goals such as benchmarks have for curriculum and instruction. At
workshops around the country, the project has shared what it has learned with
thousands of teachers, supervisors, principals, and state leaders. These workshops
introduce participants to standards-based reform and highlight the usefulness
of Benchmarks and Project 2061's other reform tools.
Who can benefit from Benchmarks and how? Together, Science for All
Americans and Benchmarks for Science Literacy are used by educators,
teacher educators, curriculum developers, museums, and others for a variety
of purposes:
Crafting Standards and Frameworks. Many states have modeled their own
standards or frameworks after Benchmarks and Science for All Americans.
A 1996 study of Project 2061's influence on reform revealed that many
state curriculum documents cite Project 2061 and its publications as key sources
in their bibliographies, quote directly from the project's publications, or
organize their own recommendations to parallel the 2061 documents. Some even
adopt benchmarks verbatim. Framework writers interviewed for the study reported
that Benchmarks strongly influenced decisions on what content to include.
Several national organizations have also used Benchmarks to guide their
efforts. The National Research Council drew on Benchmarks in developing
its 1996 National Science Education Standards. And national organizations
and agencies that support standards-based reform—the Statewide Systemic
Initiatives program of the National Science Foundation, the Department of
Education's Eisenhower Mathematics and Science Education Program, and the
Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development to name a few—have
used Project 2061's publications extensively.
Materials Selection and Development. Project 2061 has developed a rigorous
procedure—employing the learning goals presented in Benchmarks—that
enables educators to evaluate how well curriculum materials match science
literacy goals. Educators have been using Benchmarks together with
Project 2061's materials-analysis procedure to inform decisions on adopting
new curriculum materials and to determine whether and how to improve existing
materials. Some curriculum-materials developers use the procedure as they
create materials that are aligned with the project's science literacy goals.
Developing and Analyzing Assessment. With the growing consensus on learning
goals—benchmarks, standards, and state and local goals—in science
and mathematics, it is becoming increasingly important for assessments to
address those goals. Using Benchmarks, as well as National Science
Education Standards and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
standards, Project 2061 has developed an approach to analyzing and describing
the alignment of mathematics and science assessments with specific learning
goals.
Project 2061 intends to form a consortium of educators from several states
and school districts who will use the project's assessment-analysis procedure
to evaluate the alignment of science and mathematics assessments with their
own local and state standards. Ultimately, the consortium will produce hundreds
of mathematics and science assessment tasks and items that are aligned with
benchmarks and standards.
Teacher Training. Colleges of education across the country incorporate
Benchmarks into their science methods courses. Prospective teachers
become familiar with the content of the benchmarks; study the education research
that guides their careful grade-level placement; and consider how to focus
lessons, teaching methods, and assessment on specific learning goals.
Informal Education. In support of K-12 science education reform, museums
and science centers across the country are beginning to consider national,
state, and local standards in developing their exhibits and programs. They
find the specificity of Benchmarks and Science for All Americans
useful in interpreting their local or state standards, many of which are
based on these publications. Museums also use Benchmarks to select
appropriate themes for science exhibits, train docents in what to expect children
of certain ages to know and be able to do in science, and plan professional
development for teachers.
Benchmarks and National Standards
Where they address common areas—that is, natural science content—the
National Research Council's National Science Education Standards(NSES)
and Project 2061's Benchmarks for Science Literacy are highly consistent.
In fact, the National Research Council relied heavily on Benchmarks in
drafting its content standards, as stated in the introduction to NSES
The many individuals who have developed the content standards sections
of the National Science Education Standards have drawn extensively
on and made independent use and interpretation of the statements of what all
students should know and be able to do that are published in Science for
All Americans and Benchmarks for Science Literacy. The National
Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences gratefully acknowledges
its indebtedness to that seminal work by the American Association for the
Advancement of Science's Project 2061 and believes that use of Benchmarks
for Science Literacy by the state framework committees, school district
curriculum committees, and developers of instructional and assessment materials
complies fully with the spirit of the content standards. (NSES, p.
15)
Both visions of science literacy promote reducing the current glut of topics
in the curriculum and emphasize understanding of ideas central to science
literacy over memorization of vocabulary. And although they are organized
differently, in most cases Benchmarks and NSES place ideas in
the same grade ranges.
Both Benchmarks and NSES represent years of work by experts in
science and education; the extensive overlap between the two documents and
the concurrence of the National Science Teachers Association signifies an
informed consensus on the most important knowledge and skills in science,
mathematics, and technology. To help educators use NSES and Benchmarks
together more effectively, Project 2061's CD-ROM tool Resources for
Science Literacy: Professional Development offers a detailed analysis
of the similarities and differences of the two documents.
Benchmarks on Disk
To provide additional assistance to teachers and curriculum planners, Benchmarks
is also available on disk in Windows and Macintosh formats. Users can
browse through or search the full text of Benchmarks, quickly refer
to other sections related to the benchmarks at hand, and consult the research
base that informed the content and grade-level placement of the benchmarks.
Benchmarks on Disk features several "growth-of-understanding maps"
of related benchmarks that trace student progress toward particular adult
science literacy goals. Users can create and print their own groups of benchmarks
to get a sense of how ideas in the curriculum connect across grades, disciplines,
or subjects. The collection of maps on Benchmarks on Disk has been
expanded in Atlas of Science Literacy.
Benchmarks Online
With support for standards-based reform and the use of the Internet growing,
Project 2061 wanted to make Benchmarks for Science Literacy available
in a flexible and widely accessible format. Therefore,
Project 2061 has published
Benchmarks Online on-line at http://www.project2061.org/publications/bsl/online.
Users can browse the full text of Benchmarks by
chapter or use keywords to search the entire document. Hypertext links direct
the user to cognitive
research and bibliographic references.
