The State Board of Education today deferred taking action on the Next Generation Science Standards for Wyoming students. The legislature, during the last session, barred the Board from adopting the national standards wholesale and today’s meeting left no clear resolution and no clear plan on when Wyoming might see science standards and what they would look like. Wyoming Public Radio’s Bob Beck was at the meeting. He says many people came out to support the standard’s passing.
“There was a science teacher from Goshen County who spoke and pointed out that his school district is actually already adopted the Next Generation Science Standards and their school district loves them,” Beck says. “They said they’ve seen test scores improve, the PAWS test on science has improved for kids, and they were just urging the Board to make them not go back to square one and try something else.”
Beck says the Representative who introduced the amendment that blocked the Next Generation Science Standards, Matt Teeters, represents Goshen County, where that teacher works.
Beck says there were also some opponents of the standards at the meeting. One concern some have expressed about the standards is the teaching of climate change.
