Costs to implement new science standards pose problem
State, schools lack funds for overhaul, lawmakers warned; no one from Public Education Department at hearing to provide estimated expense
Following the state Public Education Department’s last-minute decision this week to drop a controversial proposal for new science teaching standards and instead adopt a set of national standards widely touted by science education experts, attention has turned to the next quandary:
How much will it cost to overhaul science education in public school classrooms across New Mexico?
And who will bear those costs? The financially challenged state or cashstrapped school districts?
“Bad news flash: Neither side has the money to do what we need to do,” Stan Rounds, executive director of the New Mexico Coalition of Education Leaders, told state lawmakers during a public hearing Thursday at the Capitol.
No one from the Public Education Department appeared at the hearing to answer questions about its plans to implement the standards or the estimated costs.
Members of the Legislative Education Study Committee had expected to hear from educators and scientists on the state’s proposed science teaching standards, which began drawing fierce criticism immediately after they were released last month. While many stakeholders commended the interactive approach to teaching science, they blasted the education department for omitting key scientific concepts, such as the age of Earth, evolution and human causes for climate change.
Critics also accused officials of allowing religious and political groups to influence decisions on the standards, though the department refused to say who had participated in the process — the first overhaul of science education guidelines since 2003.
Last week, following a public hearing that drew hundreds of vocal critics, the education department announced it would include some of the concepts it
initially had left out.
And late Wednesday, just ahead of the legislative hearing, the department went further, saying the outcry had prompted it to to decide to adopt in full the Next Generation Science Standards.
Written by scientists and educators from two prominent national associations, the Next Generation system is considered a comprehensive and interactive approach to K-12 science lessons and has been adopted by 18 other states.
The state Public Education Department hopes to begin implementing those standards — along with six New Mexico-focused additions — in July 2018 and fully roll them out by 2020.
But Rounds, a career educator in New Mexico and former superintendent of the Las Cruces public school district, told lawmakers at Thursday’s hearing that it could take until at least 2021 and require an expensive preparation process — testing the teaching measures, training educators and purchasing textbooks that align with the concepts.
The current budget for science curriculum materials, about $20 million to $25 million, won’t be enough to cover new textbooks, he said.
Gwen Warniment, who oversees a K-12 science inquiry program that the Los Alamos National Laboratory Foundation provides in several public schools in the region, agreed that textbook costs would be significant, but she said the foundation is advocating for a “no-textbook” teaching approach. Science should be taught through hands-on experiments, science kits and computer simulations, she said.
Public Education Secretary-designate Christopher Ruszkowski has emphasized the need for the state to choose or develop appropriate assessments to measure student progress under the new standards.
Those assessments, Rounds said, will take time and money to implement.
Charles Goodmacher, a spokesman for the National Education Association of New Mexico, also expressed concern about Ruszkowski’s emphasis on administering more tests.
Most legislators and educators who spoke at the hearing praised the education department for shifting to the Next Generation Science Standards.
“It really is good news,” said state Sen. Mimi Stewart, D-Albuquerque, who serves as the committee’s chairwoman. Although, she added, “There’s certainly some details to be worked out.”