Oklahoma's school science standards get an "F"

The Thomas B. Fordham Institute has published The State of State Science Standards 2005, the Institute's first comprehensive review of state science standards for public schools in five years. The bad news: despite extensive revision of many standards most students receive an education "ungrounded in basic subjects like biology, human physiology and the environment", according to the review's author, Dr. Paul R. Gross. Oklahoma's standards get a "F" for setting low student expectations and their timid treatment of evolution. On the bright side, Oklahoma's failing grade trumps Kansas' "F-" for standards "that make a mockery of the very definition of science." The good news in the review: some states have created excellent standards (New Mexico, South Carolina, and California for example), and problems in many of the poor standards are fixable.