When state leaders and national partners in the development of the Next Generation Science Standards met to consider implementation strategies, states and school districts wanted to know which materials were aligned to the new standards. The answer from the developers was short but not sweet: You won't find much now, and it's going to…

THE MOST IMPORTANT FACTOR IN IMPROVING EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT IS THE ANALYSIS AND SPECIFICATION OF EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES AND LEARNING OUTCOMES. THE DEFINITION OF INSTRUCTIONAL OBJECTIVES FOR THE CURRICULUM DESIGNER, TEACHER, AND STUDENT SERVES AS A GUIDE FOR ATTAINING GOALS. WHEN INFORMATION ABOUT STUDENT PERFORMANCE IS THE BASIS FOR CURRICULUM…

This article presents a brief history of the events leading up to the current US biology education standards, a brief examination of the National Science Education Standards for biology, and a description of the three recently developed biology curricula that were designed to address the new standards. Several evaluative studies of these curricula…