Students to take more rigorous science class

By: JOANNA CORMAN - Staff Writer | Thursday, June 3, 2004 10:10 PM PDT ∞

TEMECULA ---- Science for high school freshmen in the Temecula schools will be more difficult next year, board members and district officials said.

Students will be required to take a new class called global science, a more rigorous course than the existing physical science class, said Dianne Vaez, director of secondary education at the Temecula Valley Unified School District.

Exemptions will be made for students who want to begin their high school careers taking advanced biology, an even more challenging class than global science, she said.

Global science is a lab class covering chemistry, biology, earth science and physics with the goal of giving students a good foundation if they want to pursue one of those areas in depth.

Two developments have prompted the change. For the first time, the state is including a standardized science test in its calculation of each school's Academic Performance Index, a composite of how students score on statewide standardized tests in basic subjects.

Students who took physical science could not take the state test since their class does not match the state's science requirements, Vaez said. A student who does not take the state science test is awarded 200 points out of 1,000 on the test and counted as "far below basic."

"This year we had 785 students taking physical science, so that is a significant loss of points," Vaez said.

What's more important, Vaez said, global science is a more rigorous class and matches the state's science standards. Physical science covers only earth science.

The school board approved the new course this week in a 5-0 vote, but added a caveat. Board members said the class shouldn't be mandatory for every student. If students want to take an advanced course of science in high school, they should be exempted from global science and be able to take biology in their freshman year of high school. Typically, sophomores take biology. A student headed to a University of California or California State University school could then take chemistry, physics and a fourth laboratory science class during high school.

Physical science used to count as a high school graduation requirement, but didn't count toward admission to a four-year state school, Vaez said. The new class will count toward college. And because global science is a college-prep course, it will give students a good foundation for other science classes required by the UC system, Vaez said.

Global science meets admissions requirements for UC schools as an elective class, but not a lab science. To enter the state's four-year college systems, a student must take two years of a laboratory science such as biology or chemistry, and it is recommended to take three, Vaez said.

"Our goal is to have students in a science course all four years," Vaez said.

A group composed of science teachers from the district's middle and high schools, along with Vaez and Great Oak High Principal Tim Ritter as committee leaders, has been working on the new course since October.

Board member Ken Ray called the new class "a long overdue upgrade to the science curriculum."

Ray said the board made a provision for students to opt out and take a more advanced class because "kids who are UC-bound do not have time to take global science. They already are taking classes that are much harder ... that already meet the California standards."

Ray said the new class is not asking too much of noncollege bound students because the state's science standards demand that they take a more difficult class than physical science.

Board member Barbara Tooker said the science committee is going to look at making global science even more challenging by adding more lab hours, so that it would meet the science admissions requirements of the UC and CSU systems.

"I love the idea that students in our district will be given an overview course of all the sciences," Tooker said. "I love the idea that we've been able to very consciously move from a nonstandards-based course into a standards-based course. That's only going to help our kids all the more."

Contact staff writer Joannna Corman at (909) 676-4315, Ext. 2625, or jcorman@californian.com.

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