TEKS and More

By the 2012-2013 school year every high school student in Texas will be required to take four years of science as part of the “recommended” or “advanced” graduate plans.  These four years will include a “real” course each in biology, chemistry and physics 1. There is an IPC class (integrated physics and chemistry - like a physical science class) but this will only count towards the “minimum” graduation plan.

In 2008/2009 the TEKS (Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills - the content standards for each class) were revised.  The revision was carried out by a team of two university faculty and two high school teachers which included Dr. Marshall. These new TEKS are now going into effect.

One of the more significant changes to the TEKS was an increased emphasis on science’s role in history and in culture as well as some emphasis on science and ethics, “Science and social ethics: Scientific decision making is a way of answering questions about the natural world.  Students should be able to distinguish between scientific decision-making methods and ethical and social decisions that involve the application of scientific information.”

There was a push from biologists to include language indicating that intelligent design is not science but the physics committee did not feel this was appropriate for TEKS about physics.  The physics TEKS also do not include any language about the big bang, however the astronomy TEKS, which are separate from physics, do discuss the big bang.

Students currently take “science” TAKS exam that covers biology, chemistry and physics.  Dr. Marshall along with other professors throughout Texas carried out a detailed analysis of the science TAKS exam and found amongst other things a great deal of confusion on the part of the exam designers as to what constitutes a physics question vs. a chemistry question vs. a biology question. The full analysis of the exam is available in Physical Review Special Topics 5, 010104 (2009).

Texas high schools are in the process of phasing out TAKS exams in favor of EOC (End of Course) exams. Under the EOC plan students will take a physics specific test at the end of their physics course.  The EOC will be a computer based exam, approximately 55 questions long, that can cover any topic mentioned on the TEKS. Like the TAKS there will be no time limit on the exam. The EOC exams, like the TAKS, are also being written by Pearson. Pearson does solicit question suggestions from teachers and professors but Pearson controls the final design of all questions and will not release the questions to anyone before they are used on exams. The EOC will be required to count towards the student’s grade in physics but may be a small enough portion that a student may fail the EOC but still pass the course.  Throughout high school students will take 16 EOC exams, the student will be required to achieve an average score across all EOC exams of 70% or better to graduate from high school.

Texas Education Agency EOC information

1 A student may choose to take “Principles of Technology” in place of physics but this class still contains a significant amount of physics content.