California High School Science Summit
draws teams from across the state

NOW AVAILABLE! Full California Science Summit Report

More than 80 California high school science education professionals came together in Ontario, California, in early March for the rare opportunity to take part in a two-day "think tank" discussion focused on the state of science education, what the research says, where California high schools currently fit into the picture, and recommendations for moving research into practice.

Organized by BSCS, the K-12 Alliance/WestEd, California Science Teachers Association (CSTA), the Los Angeles and San Diego County Offices of Education, and the University of California-Riverside, the Summit brought together teachers, administrators, district and county directors, science coordinators, and university faculty from four regions across the state - Northern California, the Bay area, Fresno/LA, and Orange County/San Diego/Riverside/San Bernardino.



The Summit addressed four critical areas of need from the state science frameworks: The Nature of Science and Science Content; Assessment; Universal Access; and Professional Development.

Keynote speaker for the event was Susan Elrod, Director of the Center for Excellence in Science and Mathematics (CESaME), California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.

Four Summit sessions were led by leaders in the field of science education, including Janet Carlson, BSCS Executive Director, who gave a talk on "The Nature of Science in the Science Classroom." Mark Wilson, Director of Berkeley Evaluation and Assessment Research (BEAR) and the Center for Assessment and Evaluation of Student Learning (CAESL), led the Assessment session via video. Susan Mundry, Associate Director of Mathematics, Science and Technology, and Deputy Director of Learning Innovations at WestEd, led the Professional Development session, and Gloria Rodrigues Banuelos, scientist-educator who specializes in making science accessible to English language learners, led the "Universal Access: English Learners" session.

Through breakout sessions, Summit participants created a vision for high school science education, based on the latest research in the four critical areas. Then they discussed the current reality of high school education in California and considered recommendations that would close the gap between their vision and reality. Following those discussions, regional teams determined priority action steps specific to each team's region for the four critical areas.

The High School Science Summit was organized by planning committee co-chairs Nancy Landes (Director of the BSCS Center for Professional Development) and Kathy DiRanna (Director, K-12 Alliance, WestEd). It was sponsored by the Amgen Foundation, the Symantec Foundation and The Karen and Christopher Payne Family Foundation. BSCS Board of Directors member Richard Cardullo, biology professor and department chair with the University of California-Riverside, both planned and helped to facilitate the Summit.

The Summit planning committee will produce a proceedings document which will be available at www.bscs.org later this year.

For information about professional development opportunities with BSCS, contact us at PDcenter@bscs.org.

Download Summit Presentations