We’ve heard a lot about education standards in the last several years. Mostly, it seems, we’ve heard from people who don’t want them. 

To a degree, that’s understandable. We desire to make sure the things our children are taught in school match our local, societal and moral values in addition to teaching students the things they need to know to be prepared for careers and life in general. It seems to some that creating educational standards is giving up that control. 

That concern led to considerable public debate in the state, and in 2014 the Wyoming Legislature used a budget footnote to end state financial support for the state to consider Next Generation Science Standards.

That footnote was removed in 2015, and the Science Standards Review Committee has worked to revise science standards that have been in place in Wyoming since 2008.

A lot has happened in the science world since 2008, and Wyoming students need to keep up with modern science in order to have the most up-to-date knowlege and to be able to compete for jobs in a worldwide marketplace. 

To ensure our students receive the best of both worlds — an up-to-date science education taught in ways that we are comfortable with — the review committee is seeking public comment on its proposed science standards.

A regional meeting will take place today (Tuesday) from 6-8 p.m. in Room 70 of the Fagerberg Building at Northwest College to provide information on the proposed standards and give residents the opportunity to comment.

This is the time to speak up, to make sure your opinions are heard. Today is the last day to comment.

R.J. Kost, curriculum coordinator for Park County School District No. 1, encouraged people to read through the proposed standards and make sure they understand what they are. 

He stressed that, while the standards set the educational expectations, the curriculum taught in local classrooms is determined by the district, its teachers and administrators.

In other words, if you were to compare teaching science to a football game, the science standards would determine what goal you had to reach to score; the local school district would figure out the strategy and plays needed to get there.

“We’re always looking for the best way to educate our kids,” he said. 

Jillian Balow, Wyoming superintendent of public instruction, said, “My hope is that the public will thoroughly vet these proposed revisions and give us their feedback so that we can know without a doubt that we have the best standards for our students.”

In a commentary in the Delaware State News, teacher Megan Szabo explained why new standards are important: They make students think like scientists.

She quoted a sixth-grade student, who said, “Why can’t you just tell us what materials you’re going to give us to build the tower? That way, I can just do a Google image search and look up a picture of a design someone else made.”

Szabo said students have become so focused on getting the “right” answer that they don’t care if it is spoon-fed to them by the teacher, even if that means they do not have to think for themselves.

She said the Next Generation Science Standards focus not just teaching students science, “but rather, teaching them how to think like scientists. Instead of just focusing on a list of standards and vocabulary words that students should know, these new science standards focus on teaching students how to be thinkers, how to be problem-solvers, and to use what they learn in science class to explain how the world around them works.”

We know that teachers in the Powell school district already are using inventive ways to teach their students to think and reason, and to introduce them to the world of science.

That world is constantly changing — faster now than ever before — and science standards need to keep up with those changes.

Attending this public meeting and providing your input will help ensure that we are informed about the science standards, and that the committee developing them is informed of our priorities. Now is the time to provide that feedback — not after the process is complete.