The South Carolina Academic Standards for Science writing teams finalized the templates and format. Explicit attention was focused on communicating the intent of the standards to South Carolina science educators with minimal professional development and support documents. The SC standards will use student performance indicators to clarify expectations and how to integrate science and engineering practices, crosscutting concepts, and disciplinary core ideas.

The State Science Standards writing teams began developing templates and formats for standards development in Summer 2012. Explicit attention is focused on communicating the intent of the standards to all science educators in the state. The standards will integrate science and engineering practices, crosscutting concepts, disciplinary ideas and will include student performance indicators to clarify intended outcomes at each grade level or content area.

The State Science Standards Review Panel met all day May 18, 2012, to further refine the State Science Standards Panel report. The group of teachers and administration and state education agency staff reviewed national science standards resources in grade-level groups (elementary, middle, and high school) to determine the benefits and challenges of each resource. The panel consisting of 22 educators agreed that the current South Carolina standards needed to be revised to meet the current educational challenges in science education. This recommendation will be included in the panel report.

On April 18, a smaller subgroup of the State Science Standards Review Panel writing team was assembled to develop the draft report for review. In preparation for the writing team, staff from SECC and the South Carolina Department of Education collaborated to condense, categorize, and place the panel’s recommendations into the report format to facilitate the writing team’s process.

The Southeast Comprehensive Center (SECC) performed and provided the South Carolina Department of Education with a literature review of STEM standards and program implementation. In addition, the revision of the science standards was provided to the South Carolina Science Leadership Team meeting on March 9, 2012. Then, the first State Science Panel work session on March 20 was co-facilitated by SCDE and SECC. Recommendations from the panel were collected at the work session and for 2 weeks afterwards from the subgroups formed during the March 20 work session.

The State Science Standards Review Panel members were invited to participate in the development of a report to inform the revision of the state science standards. The invitation included an orientation webinar and three work sessions. In preparation for the revision process, a team from the South Carolina Department of Education and a member of the Southeast Comprehensive Center staff attended and participated in a national meeting in Raleigh, North Carolina, focused on processes to revise and implement state science standards.

Southeast Comprehensive Center staff assisted in the content development of an orientation webinar for the State Review Panel. The State Review Panel is responsible for writing a report to advise the revision of the state science standards.

Southeast Comprehensive Center (SECC) staff led and facilitated a meeting with South Carolina Department of Education staff. The purpose of the meeting was to clearly define the process that would be used to: revise the science standards, incorporate STEM within the standards, and clarify the role of SECC in the process. By the conclusion of the meeting, it was determined that SECC would be a critical friend and resource in the cyclical review process created by the Educational Accountability Act of 1998 and would incorporate engineering practices as appropriate.

In November 2012, collaboration with the South Carolina Department of Education and the Southeast Comprehensive Center began to revise the SC Science Standards. The work began with three conference calls with the SCDE staff to clarify the revision process and how to incorporate additional STEM components in the science standards.