Monday, June 05, 2006
KCFS Open Letter to School Superintendents
Kansas science standards -- voted in by the right-wing, anti-science majority on the state school board -- have been rightly rejected by numerous professional organizations of scientists and science teachers.
Moreover, the majority of the members of the Science Standards Writing Committee voted to disassociate themselves from the board's standards -- which, by the way, received an F from the Fordham Institute.
Shortly after the board approved the new standards, national science organizations withdrew copyright permissions they had granted for language taken from their documents.
Many believe the state standards are so flawed that they may be unconstitutional, and if endorsed by a local school district could lead to serious legal difficulties.
Now, Kansas Citizens for Science is urging school superintendents across the state to follow the example of the Manhattan-Ogden Board of Education which voted to reject the state science standards.
KCFS has written "An Open Letter to Kansas Public School District Superintendents" that recommends they adopt the standards recommended by the writing committee originally empowered by the Board to revise the 2001 standards. That group continued to work on the standards even after the board took the matter out of their hands and adopted its own anti-science standards. They've now produced a set of standards of which Kansans can truly be proud.
You can read the entire KCFS open letter here.
Moreover, the majority of the members of the Science Standards Writing Committee voted to disassociate themselves from the board's standards -- which, by the way, received an F from the Fordham Institute.
Shortly after the board approved the new standards, national science organizations withdrew copyright permissions they had granted for language taken from their documents.
Many believe the state standards are so flawed that they may be unconstitutional, and if endorsed by a local school district could lead to serious legal difficulties.
Now, Kansas Citizens for Science is urging school superintendents across the state to follow the example of the Manhattan-Ogden Board of Education which voted to reject the state science standards.
KCFS has written "An Open Letter to Kansas Public School District Superintendents" that recommends they adopt the standards recommended by the writing committee originally empowered by the Board to revise the 2001 standards. That group continued to work on the standards even after the board took the matter out of their hands and adopted its own anti-science standards. They've now produced a set of standards of which Kansans can truly be proud.
You can read the entire KCFS open letter here.
