Tomorrow afternoon, a second public draft of proposed common standards for science will be issued for comment. This represents the last opportunity for the broader community to have input into the standards, which are being developed through a partnership that includes education officials from 26 "lead states," before they are released in final form in March.
After that, it's up to states to decide whether to adopt what are being called the Next Generation Science Standards. I'll have more to say on the thorny issue of state adoptions later, but organizers of the effort are hopeful that most states ultimately will. The 26 lead states are not bound to adopt them, but have pledged to give "serious consideration" to doing so. And some other states have indicated interest in signing on as well, I'm told.
