Georgia Science Education

To:  Georgia Department of Education

We request that the Georgia Department of Education (GADOE) include all of the Project 2061 benchmarks in the new science standards for Georgia’s public schools. These benchmarks were developed by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and reflect what scientists and college professors think students need to know when they graduate from high school and enter college. Although based on the AAAS benchmarks, the standards recently proposed by GADOE have purposely removed very important and central topics from these benchmarks including common descent, human origins, the mere mention of "evolution," the age of the earth, plate tectonics (mostly), the Big Bang, human reproduction, etc.

The pattern is obvious, and compromising Georgia’s education for sectarian politics damages our state both educationally and economically. At a time when our state is desperately trying to court high-tech industries, these science standards encourage them to look elsewhere--at other states that have completely adopted the AAAS benchmarks. Companies will continue to bypass Georgia unless we adopt a real "world-class curriculum," as GADOE claims is their goal.

What students learn in high school directly impacts not only which college they enter, but what they know when, and if, they graduate from college. The more time college students and professors have to spend reviewing things that should have been covered in high school science, the less time there is to learn college-level material and to become competitively placed for employment after college. High-tech companies look for locations with highly skilled workers, but Georgia has a shortage of such workers. Improving K-12 education by incorporating all of the AAAS benchmarks will help solve that problem.

We strongly encourage the state of Georgia to incorporate the entirety of the AAAS benchmarks. A complete science education is essential to scientific literacy and to our state's economy.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

The Georgia Science Education Petition to Georgia Department of Education was created by Georgia Citizens for Integrity in Science Education and written by Reed A. Cartwright (rac@uga.edu).  This petition is hosted here at www.PetitionOnline.com as a public service. There is no endorsement of this petition, express or implied, by Artifice, Inc. or our sponsors. For technical support please use our simple Petition Help form.