Editing Science education (section)

====2012 science education framework====

According to a report from the National Academy of Sciences, the fields of science, technology, and education hold a paramount place in the modern world, but there are not enough workers in the United States entering the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) professions. In 2012 the National Academy of Sciences Committee on a Conceptual Framework for New K-12 Science Education Standards developed a guiding framework to standardize K-12 science education with the goal of organizing science education systematically across the K-12 years. Titled ''A Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas'', the publication promotes standardizing K-12 science education in the United States. It emphasizes science educators to focus on a "limited number of disciplinary core ideas and crosscutting concepts, be designed so that students continually build on and revise their knowledge and abilities over multiple years, and support the integration of such knowledge and abilities with the practices needed to engage in scientific inquiry and engineering design."<ref name=":1">[http://research.cc.lehigh.edu/sites/gradresearch.cc.lehigh.edu/files/documents/VPRO/Workshops/NRC%20Framework%20for%20K.12%20Science%20Education.pdf A Framework For K-12 Science Education]</ref>

The report says that in the 21st century Americans need science education in order to engage in and "systematically investigate issues related to their personal and community priorities," as well as to reason scientifically and know how to apply science knowledge. The committee that designed this new framework sees this imperative as a matter of [[educational equity]] to the diverse set of schoolchildren. Getting more diverse students into [[STEM fields|STEM education]] is a matter of social justice as seen by the committee.<ref>A Framework For K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas</ref>