Science Gnus

When it was decided by the Massachusetts DOE that science would be a “high stakes” test for the graduating class of 2010, we had to make some decisions on how best to prepare students to give them a greater opportunity for success.  It was felt that the struggling students in our CP1 and CP2 courses needed more than one year to cover the large amount of content in the  frameworks. Environmental science is an integrated science course, but incorporates many of the biology frameworks, especially those in ecology and evolution. Basic cell biology, classification, and other areas are addressed as well. 

The curriculum documents for both Environmental Science and Biology have timelines set for the content, but teachers at the CP1 level are having a great deal of difficulty in keeping with it.  This became especially apparent with the recent midterm exams.  In addition to the common curricula, we designed common midterm exam questions.  Teachers acknowledged that they were unable to keep up with the timeline and were not able to teach many of the topics contained in the midterm.  Teachers were also concerned about the effect that this would have on the students.  We will obviously have to make some changes in the design of the common exams, as well as the curriculum sequence.

The current frameworks were not finalized until October, 2006.  Therefore, we have had no pilot exams on the revised frameworks. The one and only pilot exam will be administered this spring.  And for grade nine students taking an “MCAS Science”- that is, biology, chemistry, introductory physics, or engineering/technology- the test will be taken as a high stakes test and will, if passed, fulfill the student’s graduation requirement in science. 

The class of 2010 will be required to pass a test in science as a graduation requirement.  In fact, the current grade nine students may take the pilot test as a “high stakes” test this spring.  Tests will be offered in four areas, and ninth or tenth grade students should be enrolled in one of the subject areas:  biology, chemistry, introductory physics or technology/engineering. The Massachusetts DOE schedule gives the details on testing dates.    Here at Barnstable High School, most tenth grade students take biology and so we are preparing students in grade nine by offering an Environmental Science course.  In this way, students are exposed to many of the frameworks from the biology standards in grade nine.  Some ninth grade students at the honors level take biology and grade nine; others take physical science.  Because there is very little science MCAS data at the high school level, this year is very important- not only as a source of data, but also to see how many of our ninth grade students satisfy the science graduation requirement.

In the state of Massachusetts, science has been added to the list of “High Stakes” tests; in other words, students in the class of 2010 must pass a science exam in order to graduate.  Therefore, I have decided to start this blog with the purpose of discussing some of the strategies that the science department at Barnstable High School in Hyannis have developed and are in the process of revising in order to give our students the best preparation for success.  I shall also discuss some of our problems and concerns.