1. High School Accountability: Aligning the Mismatch SCAS 2 High School Breakout Session October 3, 2006

2. What is the Mismatch? - 4 years of standards - 2 years required to graduate - 3 years recommended by UC/CSU system - Penalty for not taking 3 science exams - Life science test in 10 th grade - Increasing percentage of middle and high school API

3. Strategies What does your department offer to help prepare students to: become scientifically literate citizens, satisfy graduation requirements, prepare for the 10 th grade life science test, satisfy UC/CSU entrance requirements, and acquire 21 st century skills? Please take 5 minutes to discuss with partners and choose a couple out-of- the-box strategies to report out.

4. Cutting-Edge Strategies

5. States and Science Graduation Requirements www.ecs.org California The number of local control and 4-unit states are unchanged. 2-years is decreasing. 3-units is increasing. California requires 2 units (years).

6. States and Science Graduation Requirements 2 years 3 years 4 years *Data collected and prepared by Michael Horton on 9/21/06 from state websites. Data is presumed accurate, but requirements are always being updated.

7. Changes to 200 Penalty No more penalty in 10 th grade 10 th grade life science test is taken by all whether enrolled in science or not For any 9 th or 11 th grader penalized, the weight of the test is greatly reduced “Using this loophole to rearrange science curriculum is dangerous and is just as likely to reduce API as it is to increase API.” - Key Data Systems

8. Changes to 200 Penalty  College Preparatory students will continue to take 3 years of science  Non-CP students will only take 2 years of science  Non-CP classes contain far more underrepresented students than CP classes  The achievement gap will increase as a result  The number of physics and geology majors will be reduced by only 2 years of high school science which will exacerbate the difficulty in finding physics and earth science teachers

10. Featured Non-Traditional Sequences  Integrated First  Physics First  Earth Science First

11. Integrated in 9 th Grade Tood Ullah, Director of Science Los Angeles Unified School District

12.  High school science sequence of courses (ICS 1-4)  Four sections: Earth Science, Physics, Chemistry, and Biology  ICS 1 targets 9th grade students  Emphasis is conceptual rather than mathematical, emphasizing widely applicable inquiry-based pedagogy to develop widely applicable critical thinking skills  Designed to increase student interest in science for all students  Bridge that prepares students for biology, chemistry and physics  Standards are selected from earth science, physics, chemistry, and biology standards  Part of the California Standards Testing Program  Satisfies G requirement for CSU/UC eligibility  “Only” requires a secondary science credential  Taught in LAUSD for over a decade What is Integrated Coordinated Science?

13.  Integrated Coordinated Science for the 21st Century, 2004, www.its-about- time.com  Research-based instructional program  Fully-aligned to National Science Education Standards  Four week independent units  Pedagogy designed to highlight Science learning as an active process Student-directed scientific inquiry (Activity before Concept, Concept before Vocabulary) Connections to prior knowledge Knowledge transfer Assessment of student understanding and misconceptions  Congruent with language acquisition pedagogy The Integrated and Coordinated Science Textbook Adoption

14. Level III – Core Institutes 100 returning teachers (cohort 1-6) 15-20 hrs (3 after school hours & 1 Saturday) Co-developed and co-facilitated by University Partners and ICS1 Leadership Team Active Chemistry -Content -pedagogical content knowledge Active Biology -Content -pedagogical content knowledge Biology Expert EarthComm -Content -pedagogical content knowledge Active Physics -Content -pedagogical content knowledge

15. Participation in the ICS 1 Program: Science Course Taking Among 9th Graders Changed in Recent Years N=40,491N=51,076 N=54,516N=52,393 (Class of 2007)(Class of 2006)(Class of 2005) (Class of 2004) (Class of 2008) N=46,319 Source: 2005 California Student Testing and Reporting Data Files, CDE.

16. Participation in the ICS 1 Program: What were the Main Science Course Pathways? (follow students with at least two years of science from 2000/01 to 2003/04) Five Most Popular Pathways (Class of 2004) First CourseSecond CoursePercent  Biology  Chemistry31%  Biology  Adv. Physical Science17%  ICS 1  ICS 214%  ICS 1  Biology12%  Other “G” Course  Biology9%

17. Student Performance: California STAR Testing Program, California Standards Test: LAUSD vs California ICS 1, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and Earth Science

18. Student Performance: Do 9th Graders Taking ICS 1 in 9th Grade Perform better than Expected on Subsequent Science CSTs? Notes: Expected scale scores based on OLS regression model where the science scale score is dependent on 9th grade ELA and Math CST scale scores. Analysis restricted to students who entered 9th grade in 2003 and took the Biology CST as a 10th grader in 2004 and the Chemistry CST as an 11th grader in 2005 (N=8,055). a Statistically different from “no science” in 9th grade; Effect sizes of 0.15 and 0.24, respectively. b Statistically different from “other science” in 9th grade; Effect sizes of 0.08 and 0.13, respectively. 4.6 ab 0.8 1.1 -1.7 Preliminary Results 2.8 ab

19. Student Performance: What influence does the 9th Grade Science Course have on Scores on the NCLB 10th Grade Science Test? 1.8* -1.6 -1.4 Preliminary Results Notes: Expected scale scores based on OLS regression model where the ICS 1 scale score is dependent on 9th grade ELA and Math CST scale scores. Analysis restricted to students who were 9th graders in 2004-05 and 10th graders in 2005-06 (N=34, 599). *ICS 1 value-added is significantly greater than Biology and No Science groups.

20. Physics in 9 th Grade About 10 years ago, a reform movement began to switch physics to 9 th grade. There was no data supporting this idea, only anecdote. Many schools and districts switched and did not collect any data to judge its effectiveness. To this date, no formal study has been done to measure its effectiveness. In 2001, Leon Lederman estimated that over 100 schools (60% private) had switched to physics first nationally. As of today, no data has been published showing its effect. A website now lists 299 schools teaching physics first, certainly not a complete listing.

21. Physics in 9 th Grade I have collected data from California schools showing: 1)Physics first destroys physics test scores 2)Physics first hurts chemistry test scores 3)Physics first does not affect biology test scores 4)Physics first does not increase enrollment in higher physics classes Analyzing the standards has also showed: 1)Physics standards are highest on Bloom’s Taxonomy 2)Very little chemistry and physics are needed to be proficient in the CA biology standards 3)All of the chemistry and physics needed is in the middle school standards 4)Calculators are not even allowed on the physics test, this is not a mathematics issue Still, over 13,000 9 th graders took the physics CST last year.

22. Earth Science in 9 th Grade Sonia Regenfuss, Science Department Chair Beckman High School, Tustin Unified School District

23. Earth Science First My position on Earth Science first: Our district went to Earth Science for freshman as a means to cover all the standards and develop well rounded students. A typical student would take Earth Science as a freshman, a life science as a Sophomore, chemistry as a junior, and then physics as a senior. Our upper end students take Biology Honors as freshmen, then chemistry honors, followed by Physics AP or Biology AP or Chemistry AP or Environmental AP their Junior/Senior year. Earth Science seems to be a milder transition for many students who face EL or RSP issues. The students can be successful and develop their skills at the high school level. Earth science has some anchors like earthquakes or hurricanes that students can relate to, where as, biology can be very abstract when you talk about processes you can not see. We face much of the same problems that many high schools do with jumping from middle school to high school being such a large change. As teachers, we know the students learned specific standards at the middle school but middle school is an odd age for many students. Once in high school the demands of the activities, sports and academics are a balancing act. We have many honors students step back one year to then go on the take honors biology their sophomore year. Also in developing better citizens that will vote on issues in the future, Earth Science standards cover water issues, global warming, energy, California resources, and also hazards such as hurricane Katrina. These are all topics that are in the news that students should understand.

24. ES First Data CST Earth Science Tustin School District, district API = 790, 36% SED, 31% ELL 9 th 10 th 11 th Students tested10882327 % of enrollment66.7%1.5%2.2% % advanced104.011 % proficient242211 % basic413952 % below basic172222 % far below basic 713 4 CST Algebra I Tustin School District for comparison 9 th Students tested1160 % advanced 7 % proficient30 % basic28 % below basic24 % far below basic10

25. Can Data Guide Us? Michael Horton, Science Coordinator Orange County Department of Education

26. Science Program’s Effect on NCLB Test A higher percentage of 9 th graders in biology shows a slight upward trend in 10 th grade CST life science test scores.

27. Science Program’s Effect on NCLB Test A higher percentage of 10 th graders in biology shows a slight upward trend in 10 th grade CST life science test scores.

28. Science Program’s Effect on NCLB Test Integrated first Physics first A higher percentage of 11 th graders in biology shows a downward trend in 10 th grade CST life science test scores.

29. Science Program’s Effect on NCLB Test Summary The data shows little difference between taking biology as a 9 th grader or a 10 th grader. Those who took biology as an 11 th grader scored much lower than these two groups.

30. Can Bloom’s Taxonomy Help? If the content standards are analyzed as per which level of Bloom’s taxonomy they address, the following pattern is found. Lower level is considered recall. High level is anything above that. Low-LevelHigh Level% High Level Biology 54 12 18% Earth Science 36 10 22% Chemistry 41 30 42% Physics 24 24 50%

31. Contact Information Dean Gilbert, gilbert_dean@lacoe.edu Michael Horton, mhorton@rcoe.us Sonia Regenfuss, sregenfuss@tustin.k12.ca.us Todd Ullah, todd.ullah@lausd.net