Recent calls for reform in education recommend science curricula to be based on central ideas instead of a larger number of topics and for alignment between current scientific research and curricula. Because alignment is rarely studied, especially for central ideas, we developed a methodology to discover the extent of alignment between primary…

Argues that the National Science Education Standards uses a discourse of invisibility to lay out its reform for science education and does not directly address ethnic, socioeconomic, gender, and theoretical issues. Proposes that the standards ought to provide arguments and evidence in support of the reasons why equity should be a guiding principle…